he solitary rides which were his greatest diversion. He had
just returned from the East and had not yet learned of the use to which
Wallie had put his check. But now he recalled Wallie's parting speech to
Pinkey when he had started to get the paper cashed, and this fantastic
company was the result!

As Canby drew in his horse, he stared in stony-eyed unfriendliness
while they waved at him gaily and Mr. Stott called out that they were
going to be neighbourly and visit him soon.

The feeling of helpless wrath in which he now looked after the party was
a sensation that he had experienced only a few times in his life. Pinkey
had warned him that at the first openly hostile act he would "blab" the
story of the Skull Creek episode far and wide. He had hit Canby in his
most vulnerable spot, for ridicule was something which he found it
impossible to endure, and he could well appreciate the glee with which
his many enemies would listen to the tale, taking good care that it
never died.

By all the rules of the game as he had played it often, and always with
success, Wallie should long since have "faded"--scared, starved out.
Yet, somehow, in some unique and extraordinary way that only a "dude"
would think of, he had managed to come out on top.

But the real basis for Canby's grievance, and one which he would not
admit even to himself, was that however Wallie was criticized, Helene
Spenceley never failed to find something to say in his defence.

There was not much that Canby could do in the present circumstances to
put difficulties in Wallie's way, but the next day he found it
convenient to turn a trainload of long-horn Texas cattle loose on the
adjacent range, and posted warnings to the effect that they were
dangerous to pedestrians, and persons going among them on foot did so at
their own risk.

CHAPTER XX

WALLIE QUALIFIES AS A FIRST-CLASS HERO

Pinkey took a triangular piece of glass from between the logs in the
bunk-house and regarded himself steadfastly in the bit of broken mirror.

He murmured finally:

"I ain't no prize baby, but if I jest had a classy set of teeth I
wouldn't be bad lookin'."

He replaced the mirror in the crack and sauntered down to the cook-shack
where he seated himself on the door-sill. The chef was singing as if he
meant it: "Ah, I Have Sighed to Rest Me Deep in the Silent Grave."

Pinkey interrupted:

"How do you git to work to get teeth, Mr. Hicks, if they ain't no
dentist han