to a toddling calf and your wagon mules. Your drafts are
refused honor at the Beaver banks--nothing but the long green passes
currency here. You varmints must show some regrets for taking advantage
of a widow woman. I'll make you sorry for passing me."

"How I love to hear old Nat rattle his little song," said one of the
foremen, shaking hands with Dell. "Remember the night you slept with me?
How's the black cow I gave you last summer?"

Dell fairly clung to the grasped hand. "Pressnell's foreman!" said he,
recalling both man and incident. "The cow has a roan calf. Sit down.
Will you need a fresh horse to-day? Do you like lettuce?"

"I reckon, Nat," said the other foreman, an hour later, as the two
mounted loaned horses, "I reckon your big talk goes up in smoke. You're
not the only director in this cattle company. Dell, ransack both our
wagons to-day, and see if you can't unearth some dainties for this sick
lad. No use looking in Straw's commissary; he never has anything to eat;
Injuns won't go near his wagon."

Straw spent a second night with the sick man. On leaving in the
morning, he took the feverish hand of the lad and said: "Now, Jack, make
yourself right at home. These boys have been tried before, and they're
our people. I'm leaving you a saddle and a horse, and when you get on
your feet, take your own bearings. You can always count on a job with
me, and I'll see that you draw wages until my outfit is relieved. This
fever will burn itself out in a week or ten days. I'll keep an eye over
you until you are well. S'long, Jack."

The second week fell short only two herds of the previous one. There
were fully as many cattle passed, and under the heat of advancing summer
the pools suffered a thirsty levy. The resources of the ponds were a
constant source of surprise, as an occasional heavy beef caved a foot
into an old beaver warren, which poured its contents into the pools. At
the end of the first fortnight, after watering fifty-eight herds, nearly
half the original quantity of water was still in reserve.

A third week passed. There was a decided falling off in the arrival of
herds, only twenty-two crossing the Beaver. The water reserves suffered
freely, more from the sun's absorption than from cattle, until the
supply became a matter of the most serious concern. The pools would not
have averaged a foot in depth, the flow from the springs was a mere
trickle, the beaver burrows sounded empty to a horse's footbeat