alking about?"

"Well, now, that's a hard question," answered Forrest. "I'll chance the
subject is of no importance. Just a little social powwow with the boys,
most likely. Sit down, Doctor, and take life easy--the cows will calve
in the spring."

Patience had almost ceased to be a virtue when the trail boss put in an
appearance at the tent. "You are in no particular hurry, are you,
Doctor?" he inquired, with a friendly smile.

"Oh, no," said the physician, with delightful irony; "I was just
thinking of having the team unhooked, and lay over another day. Still, I
am some little distance from home, and have a family that likes to see
me occasionally."

The buckboard rattled away. "Come in the tent," called Forrest to the
boys. "If old Paul sees you standing out there, he's liable to think of
something and come back. Honestly, when it comes to killing time, that
old boy is the bell steer."

Only three were now left at the homestead. The first concern was to
intercept the next passing herd. Forrest had a wide acquaintance among
trail foremen, had met many of them at Dodge only ten days before, while
passing that supply point, and it was a matter of waiting until a herd
should appear.

There was little delay. Joel was sent at ten o'clock to the nearest
swell, and Dell an hour later. The magic was working overtime; the dust
cloud was there! In his haste to deliver the message, the sentinel's
horse tore past the tent and was only halted at the corral. "It's
there!" he shouted, returning, peering through the tent-flaps. "They're
coming; another herd's coming. It's in the dip behind the first divide.
Shall I go? I saw it first."

"Dismount and rest your saddle," said Forrest. "Come in and let's make a
little medicine. If this herd has one, here's where we get a cow. Come
in and we'll plot against the Texans."

With great misgiving, Dell dismounted. As he entered the tent, Forrest
continued: "Sit on the corner of my bunk, and we'll talk the situation
over. Oh, I'm going to send you, never fear. Now, the trouble is, we
don't know whose herd this may be, and you must play innocent and foxy.
If the herd is behind the first divide, it'll water in the Beaver about
four o'clock. Now, ride down the creek and keep your eagle eye open for
a lone horseman, either at the crossing or on the trail. That's the
foreman, and that's the man we want to see. He may be ten miles in the
lead of his herd, and you want to ride straight to hi