callin',' Eden replied bluntly.
'I can take care of myself,' Baudry said with a thin smile. 'Still, there's the chance. Setting that aside, you know I'm willing to wait?'
'Shore, yu've been mighty good lettin' me have the coin, Jethro,' the rancher said warmly. 'But think of it, man; a hundred thousand acres that, in a few years' time, may be worth as many dollars as I've paid cents for 'em. Wouldn't yu wanta feel it really belonged to yu?'
Actually the gambler was feeling just that, but his bland features expressed nothing of the greed which possessed him.
'Natural enough ; but these big drives are risky they tell me,' he rejoined. 'You may lose your herd.'
'I'm losin' 'em anyway,' the cattleman said bitterly ; and reading the question in the other's eyes, 'Yeah, rustlers, o' course. It's an easy play ; the beasts is scattered in the brush an' a lot must be unbranded ; our round- ups aint been too thorough the last year or so--I couldn't afford a large outfit --an' what was the use when all yu could get for a steer was a few dollars for the hide an' taller? An' for that yu gotta drive 'em to a coast-town, which cut the profit to near nothin' a-tall.
'Now, they tell me, it's different ; the East needs beef ; the Gov'ment wants it to feed the Injuns on the reservations when they can git the war-whoops to stay on 'em ; the northern ranchers have discovered that the buffalo grass on their big plains will fatten cows, an' they're lookin' for stock. There's a shippin' point at Abilene, Kansas, an' beasts worth little more'n nothin' here will fetch as much as fifteen dollars or more apiece.'
'Certainly sounds good,' the younger man said. 'If you can make it.'
'I gotta make it, or bust,' Eden said grimly. 'Anyways, yo're sittin' pretty, Jethro ; if I win through, yu get yore dinero ; if I don't, the ranch is yores ; yu needn't to worry.'
'I don't intend to,' Baudry assured him ; and again a fleet ing smile swept over his pale face. Then he asked casually, 'Any news of that son of yours?'
The rancher's brows met in a heavy frown. 'I've no son,' he said harshly. 'When he went from here he stepped outa my life ; I'll be glad if yu'll remember that, Jethro.' And, after a pause, 'No, I ain't heard nothin'.'
The other made no comment, but in his eyes there was a gleam of satisfaction.
'When do you expect to start north?'
'Soon as we can gather an' road-brand a sizable herd. Hello, who's that with Carol?'
The girl and her companion, having left their mounts at the corral, had suddenly appeared round the end of the ranch-house. Baudry rose and bowed to the lady, whose expression did not convey too warm a welcome. Murmuring a formal greeting, she turned to the cattleman.
'Dad, this is Mister Green, and I've brought him, much against his wish'--she smiled at the culprit--'because I knew you would want to thank him.'
In a few words she told the story of her adventure and Sam Eden's face paled beneath its tan as he comprehended the terrible fate she had so narrowly escaped. Impulsively his hand went out.
'young fella,' he said, 'if there's anythin' I've got an' yu want, name it. yu couldn't 'a' done me a greater service.' Sudden gripped the proffered fist. 'It don't need speakin' of, seh,' he said. 'I happened to be handy, an' ...' He bogged down and looked thoroughly uncomfortable.
The rancher realized his feelings ; he knew the breed--they would rather oe blamed than thanked. He turned to the girl.
'As for yu, miss, didn't I tell yu' he began sternly. Before he could say any more her arm was through his and her cheek against his shoulder.*
'Now don't be an old bear ; I'll 'fess up,' she smiled. 'Of course you warned me, and I was wrong to go so far, but I didn't think of Indians.'
'It ain't on'y them pesky critters,' the old man growled. 'yu might 'a' met up with some o' Rogue's Riders-- his hide out is somewhere around.' He looked at the cowboy quizzi cally. 'yu don't happen to belong to that gang, do yu?' Sudden shook his head, grinned, and repeated the reply he had given the girl. 'I'm from the south ; havin' a look at the country.'
The explanation satisfied the cattleman ; he was aware that the range rider was a restless animal, liable to fork his horse and set out, at short notice or none at all, in search of fresh fields. He liked the look of this loose- limbed, competent appearing stranger.
At the meal to which they sat down later, Eden reverted to the momentous step he was contemplating, asking the cow boy if he had any experience of trail-driving?
'On'y short distances,' Sudden told him. 'Never been north ; but I hear it ain't no picnic.'
The rancher nodded grimly. 'Others have done it, an' I'm gain' to,' he said. 'Like to come along? I can do with a couple more men.' He saw the hesitation, and added, 'Think --we won't be ready yet awhile.'
Sudden promised he would do so, and asked the probable size of the herd.
'I'm hopin' for three thousand head,' Eden said. 'Take some handlin' but I got a good outfit. The pay is thirty a month an' every man gets a share when we sell the cattle.'
The cowboy nodded. He liked the rancher, recognized him as a good specimen of the bluff, straightforward frontiersmen *ho, penetrating and settling in the wildest parts of the country, were preparing the way for the civilization which would inevitably follow. Baudry he did not take to, instinct telling him that under the smooth exterior lurked passions by no means in keeping with it. Once or twice he caught him looking at the girl, plain desire in his eyes.
'Miss Carol, of course, will remain here,' the gambler said.
'Miss Carol, of course, will--not,' the lady promptly stated.
Her father looked at her in astonishment. 'Don't talk foolish, girl,' he said. 'There's no place for a lone woman on a trail drive.'
Carol's reply appeared to be irrelevant. 'Aren't you taking Peg-leg?'
'Shore I am ; we'd do fine without a cook, wouldn't we?'
'Then you'll have to take his wife--Judy won't let him go without her--so I shan't be `a lone woman,' you see.' The rancher's face was clouding up, but she did not wait for the storm to burst. 'Can't I ride, rope, and drive cattle as well as the boys?' she asked, and when he nodded a grudging assent, she added triumphantly, 'Well then, you get a top-hand for nothing, and you grumble. But of course, you were only teasing ; you meant I should go all the time. I must tell Judy.'
She jumped up, blew him a kiss, and danced away. Her parent opened his lips to call her back, but was too late. He turned to his guests with a droll expression of hopelessness.
'I can handle the savagest steer or woolliest cowboy that ever forked a pony, but when it comes to what some funny fella called the `weaker sex,' I'm beat,' he confessed. 'That bit o' impudence does what she likes with me.'
Sudden left soon after the meal, returning the way he had come. The body of the dead Indian had vanished ; his companion must have returned. The circumstance was to bear a significance later, but now he gave it no thought. His brain was busy with the offer he had jus received. It seemed to present a means of getting out of the mire into which chance had so unceremoniously thrown him ; and moreover, the very enterprise itself appealed to his adventurous nature. The task of shepherding three thousand wild cattle through eight or nine hundred miles of fierce, untamed country seemed worthy of a man, and there was the added incentive that, in the lawless cow- towns of the north, he might find the fellows he was seeking. But he would not decide yet, for though, when necessity demanded, he could think and act with lightning speed, he was a deliberate person. And because of that, he would not mention his afternoon's experience--even to Sandy.
'I'm bettin' he's straight,' he told himself. 'But our friendship is some recent.'
When he reached the valley hg found the men loafing outside the large cabin, smoking and yarning. Having disposed of his horse, he joined them. Rogue had apparently not yet returned. They watched him curiously as he seated himself on a bench next to Sandy, who was looking uneasy.
'Supper's through,' that young man remarked, and then, in a whisper, 'Suthin's up, dunno what, but watch out.'
'I've fed,' Sudden replied.
He had already sensed the air of expectancy with which his arrival had been greeted, and guessed that some attempt to 'try him out' might be made.
Navajo and Ropey, standing six or seven yards away, were engaged in an argument, their voices rising.
