They reached the spot, and leaving Sandy on guard outside, the others rode into the valley. One glance told Sudden that he had guessed correctly ; the herd had more than doubled ; roughly he estimated it at nearly a thousand head, with a sprinkling of horses. His companions yelped gleefully.
"Seems we might git a cow a-piece arter all, Jed," the fatman remarked. "Wish I'd took that bet. Why didn't yu take him up, Jim?"
"They might not 'a' been here," Sudden smiled. "We'll have one fine job handlin' 'em ; I didn't expect so many."
"What about sendin' to Jeff for help?" Jed asked.
"Too risky--the rustlers may be showin' up any moment. We'll go while the goin's good."
For the next few hours all four riders were far too busy to think of anything but the work in hand. It was a big bunch for so small a crew, and the cattle--loth to leave the peaceful, sheltered valley, made frequent efforts to break back. By the time the arroyo was reached the men were limp, drenched with perspiration, and utterly profane.
They found the foreman and Carol at the entrance to the arroyo, and the little man's slitted eyes widened when he saw the cattle pouring through.
"Christ-opher Columbus!" he ejaculated, remembering just in time that his employer's daughter was present. "Whose ranch yu bin raidin', Jim?"
But the girl had seen the brand. "They are our own cows, Jeff," she cried. "Won't Dad be pleased!"
"I'll say he will," the foreman grinned. "This'll do him more good than all the nussin'. How come, Jim?"
Sudden told the tale, while Jeff swore delightedly to himself as he listened.
"Yu shore got nerve, boy," he commented. "Lettin' them thieves collect our cows for us was one great scheme."
"Seemed fair to me," Sudden smiled. "They scattered 'em."
Jeff's eyes had been busy and as the last of the herd trotted by he slapped his thigh joyously. "Damn near a thousand head," he said. "Why, we won't be more'n three-four hundred shy after all, an' we owe it to yu, Jim."
"Shucks," Sudden said lightly, and jerked a thumb at his friend. "There's the fella yu gotta thank."
"I was meanin' both," the foreman replied. "It was shorely a good day for the S E that brought yu boys along." Sandy cared nothing for the little man's praise ; the look of gratitude the girl gave him as she rode away to tell her father the news was all the reward he wanted.
"We'll be all fixed to take the trail in the mornin'," Jeff went on. Sudden's eyebrows rose and he shot a whimsical glance at the sun overhead. The foreman read it. "yo're figurin' we oughta start now?" he asked.-
"Think it over," the cowboy replied. "We don't know how soon them hombres will discover their loss, but yu can bet they won't waste no time high-tailin' it after us--follerin' the cattle won't be no trick a-tall, we couldn't blind our tracks. Any lead we can get will be all to the good."
"yo're damn right," Jeff agreed. "We want to be plenty absent when they arrive. Sandy, go tell the boys we'll be settin' out pronto."
In less than an hour the herd was again on the move, heading away from where they conjectured the rustlers to be encamped. Despite the disaster, cheerfulness reigned. The loss had proved far less than had seemed likely, and the riders, with the optimism born of their hardy natures, had already transformed the incident into a victory ; they had "put one over" the cattle-thieves. Pebbles expressed his satisfaction in song:
"Roll yore tails an' roll 'em high, We'll all be angels by an' by."
The foreman's face creased in a smile. "Hark to him," he said. "He's wore to a frazzle--as we all are---his clothes is sca'cely decent, an' he ain't got a dollar to his name, but he's happy. Yu can't heat them fellas."
Chapter XIV
SUDDEN reined in his horse on the top of a broken-backed ridge and surveyed the surrounding scenery ; the indentation between his level brows denoted that he was not entirely pleased with what he saw. Since the stampede and the events which followed it, day after day had passed in wearying but satisfactory monotony.
For the last day or so Sudden had been wondering whether, in their search for easy going, they had veered too much to the west. Now, it was clear that the surface of the prairie was changing, the grass was becoming sparse and sand was taking its place. Ahead of him, a giant cactus, its candelabra-like armscurving upwards, stood like a warning sentinel. Far away, almost on the horizon, a swarm of black dots moved slowly nearer. He rode back to the herd.
"Desert ahead," he said briefly. "Ain't drifted on to the Staked Plain, have we?"
The question put a perturbed expression on the foreman's lined features.
"Hell, Jim, I can't say," Jeff confessed. "That cussed stampede throwed us right out, an' I dunno nothin' about this blame' country. Mebbe we're on'y on the fringe of it."
"Better swing to the east anyways," Sudden advised.
Jeff gave the necessary instruction to the point men and then rode ahead with Sudden after the herd. When they sighted it, Jeff bit on an oath ; the cattle were floundering through a sea of sand, hummocks, ridges, and long rolling swells stretched out unendingly until they merged with the pale blue of the cloudless sky. As they were about to pass the wagon, Peg-leg jerked a thumb backwards.
"The 01' Man has been askin' for yu, Jeff," he grunted. "Wanted to know what we was doin' in this fry-pan? I done told him it was better'n bein' in the fire, but he on'y cussed me."
Sam Eden, propped up inside the conveyance, greeted them peevishly ; with returning strength, he was beginning to chafe at inaction, as a sick man will. The foreman set out the situation.
"At least we've dodged the redskins an' mebbe this sand ain't but a strip," he finished. "yu got the best of it in here, Sam ; the air outside would choke a wooden image." The cattleman's reply was a wholesale condemnation of the Indians, the desert, the wagon, and the man who was responsible for his being confined to it. Though he spoke in a low voice, one of the women sitting beside the driver heard and promptly parted the curtains which screened the front of the vehicle.
"Make tracks," Judy ordered. "How'n hell am I to git that fella fit if yu come around upsettin' him? Take yore damn troubles somewhere else."
"He's here 'cause I wanted to see him," the invalid said. "Then yu got no more sense than he has," the lady retorted. "Did I hear yu cough?"
"No," Eden replied quickly, and clutched his cherished pipe.
He knew the threat behind the question. With a feeble grin at his foreman, he added, "Better fade, Jeff ; she's the doc, yu know, bl--ess her."
Mile upon mile under the pitiless sun they crawled, both men and beasts choking in the clouds of dust churned up by thousands of tramping feet. On all sides lay the arid waste of bleached sand, the powdery particles of which covered them with a coating of dirty white, invaded eyes, mouth, and nostrils, and getting between the skin and clothing, caused intolerable discomfort. Progress was painfully slow, for the cattle sank knee-deep in the soft surface and riders had to tie their ropes to the wagon in order to pull it up the slopes. Here and there a bare shoulder of rock, a stunted mesquite, or a cactus, its spines gleaming frostily, broke the soul-sickening sameness of the scene. The sand flung the sun's rays back in their faces and they seemed to be wading through a lake of shimmering heat.
The cool night air brought some slight mitigation of their sufferings but instead of being baked they were nearly frozen. Some of the cook's cherished fuel and a few dead mesquite branches supplied a poor fire, round which those not watching the herd huddled in humorous discontent. The two barrels of water slung to the wagon were all of the precious liquid they possessed ; the horses were given a bare swallow apiece but the cattle had to go thirsty. One mug of coffee was the allowance for each man.