"Shore we will," Sudden rejoined.
All the rest of the outfit were there with the exception of Truthful, of whom no one had any tidings save that he had been with the herd when it began to run. The other men, unable to stay the tide of terrified brutes, contented themselves with following bunches of them and, when the scare died out, driving them back. In this way they had salvaged over four hundred and a dozen horses.
At the camp itself they found Sandy and Peg-leg sitting by the wagon with rifles. The women were inside with the invalid, who listened silently to his foreman's report.
"We've got around eight hundred an' I guess we can search out enough others to go on," Jeff concluded.
The old man glared at him. "yo're damn right we'll go on," he rasped. "Get this, an' get it straight: I said I'd make this drive an' I'll do it, if there's on'y one blasted cow to take into Kansas."
"That goes with me, an' with all of us, I reckon," the foreman said quietly, and went on to tell of Sudden's suggestion to move camp.
"Sounds a good idea," the cattleman agreed. He looked at the cowboy. "Young fella, I figure yu saved my life-though I shore thought yu'd gone loco. That lead pill went in just where my head had been, an' I'm thankin' yu. What had Lasker against me, Jeff?"
"We've bin framed, Sam ; they just waited their chance. Jim got one of 'em."
He related the passing of the unknown rustler and the old man's eyes glowed with savage approval.
"One skulking thief less, anyways," he grated. "I'm thankin' yu again, Jim."
As they left the wagon, Peg-leg handed each of them a steaming mug and hurried away in search of his beloved mules. Jeff took a big gulp of the liquid and nodded at the retreating figure.
"Peg used to ride hisself an' he knows that `coffee at any time' makes a cook the boys will swear by instead of at," he remarked.
The foreman went to give some instructions to the men and Sandy strolled up.
"I'm owin' yu somethin', Jim," he began, and noting his friend's look of surprise, added, "For downin' that rat, Lasker."
I'm beginnin' to suspect that fella warn't popular," Sudden said. "Why gratitude from yu?"
"Hell's bells, didn't he try to bump off the 01' Man?" Sandy demanded.
"0' course, daddy-in-law to be, huh?" Sudden nodded comprehendingly. "But why ain't yu in the hospital, swappin' pains with him?"
"For the same reason yu ain't in a home for the half-witted --neither of us could qualify," came the swift retort. "yo're sufferin' from the wrong nurse," Sudden said shrewdly. "C'mon. What yu want is work, an' it's shorely waitin' for yu."
They reached the herd=whither Jeff had preceded them--just after the missing rider, Truthful, had arrived, proudly escorting a score of steers. Ringed in by the rest, he was telling his story :
"When the mix-up started, my hors went loco ; he's as strong as Satan's breath, that roan is, an' I couldn't hold him. Where he took me I dunno but we rode around for"
"Days," Silent suggested.
"Weeks," corrected the Infant.
"Hours, I was gain' to say, though it seemed like days," the narrator said. "When dawn arrove I found I was in the middle o' the plain--"
"Oh, bury me out on the lone pra-i-rie," chanted the Infant, and was promptly promised that fate if he opened his face again.
"There warn't nothin' in sight but a clump o' scrub, mostly mesquite, an' while I'm lookin' at this out steps one solitary steer, an' who'd yu think it was?"
"The Bull o' Bashan," Sandy offered.
"Never heard o' the brand," the tale-teller retorted. "No, gents, it was ol' Show-'em-how, shore as I'm standin' here."
"yu ain't standin'--yo're lyin', Truthful," sniggered Dumpy. Even Jeff laughed at this, and then commanded silence."Go ahead, boy," he said. "I wanta hear how yu rounded up them cows."
"I didn't," Truthful replied. "When of Show-'em pops out I remarks aloud, `What's th' use o' one damn cow anyways?' Well, that moss-head looks at me solemn for 'bout a minitan' then stalks back into the brush. I figure 1 shorely hurt his feelin's, but presently, out he comes again with eleven more along, sorta lines 'em up, an' cocks an eye at me. I points to the scrub.
" degGood for yu, ol-timer,' I sez. `Fly at it--fetch 'em all out. Sic 'em.'
"Shore enough he heads in again ; the steers start to foller but he lets out one beller an' they stops, mighty abrupt. It's mebbe half an hour before he shows up again with eight cows.
" `Ain't there no more?' I asks, an' I wish I may die if he didn't shake his head. Then he trots off across the plain, the rest tailin' after, an' here we are."
One by one the audience stepped forward, grasped the narrator's right hand, shook it vigorously and retreated without a word. Truthful endured it with widening eyes until all but the foreman had taken part, and then: '
"Jeff, they think I'm stringin' 'em," he cried.
"Don't yu care, son," was the reply. "I'm believin' yu, but" --there was a grin on the leathery face--"not until frawgs grows feathers."
Chapter XIII
WITH the cattle and camp safely hidden in the arroyo, which two men could guard, the remainder of the outfit were free to scour the surrounding country in search of the scattered long-horns. This meant a repetition of the work done when the herd was got together, many hours of hard riding, the routing of beasts out of brush-choked gullies and thorny chaparral. Despite the difficulties, additions to the herd dribbled in and with each one the foreman's face grew less sombre. On the fifth day, however, some of the searchers returned empty-handed, though still nearly half the oattle were missing.
"They musta got away with over a thousand head, reckonin' they'd lose some we ain't found," Jeff said. "We might as well push on ; we won't find many more."
"Hold on for another day," Sudden advised, "an' let me an' Sandy have Jed an' Dumpy to-morrow."
The foreman agreed without question ; he was beginning to realize that this cool, capable young cowboy usually had a reason for anything he said or did.
On the following morning the four men set out. Jed, as ever, had his grumble: "Waste o' time. Betcha we don't git a cow a-piece."
Sandy grinned at his friend. "Don't tell 'em," he whispered. "Shore not," Sudden said. "Besides, the nest may be empty ; the joke would be on us then."
It had been on the first day that the pair of them, returning after a fruitless foray through a broken patch of country some twelve miles from camp, halted abruptly on the edge of a wide swathe of cattle-tracks. The fact that the beasts had been bunched together, and the prints of shod horses alongside, told that they had been driven. The S E men followed the trail to a small, hidden valley, rock-rimmed the narrow entrance to which was masked by a great boulder and further defended by a rude fence of poles lashed together with rawhide, two of which could be moved to permit passage. Riding through, they found a grass-covered basin in which some hundreds of cows were feeding. There appeared to be no one in charge, and they had no difficulty in getting near enough to read the brand on the nearest beast.
"S E," Sandy cried exultantly. "Jim, our luck has shorely changed ; here's a sight that'll make Jeff's eyes stick out like they was on stalks. Do we round 'em up?"
Sudden shook his head. "Here's how I figure it," he explained. "Rogue's men couldn't hold the herd no more'n we could. They're combin' the country too an' bringin' 'em here as they gather 'em. I'm bettin' that if we call again in a few days' time we'll find twice as many."
Sandy let out a whoop. "Jim, yo're a great man," he said. "The notion o' lettin' them skunks collect cows for us hits me where I live."
So they had left the valley undisturbed and for the ensuing days had ridden in other directions. It had been a gamble, and they were now on their way to learn if they had lost or won. If the rustlers had removed their plunder... .