ill's face was as blank as a Chinaman's.

"'S very important," Bill continued, "an' I think your father'd consider
me justified in takin' you away fr'm your lessons." Having studied this
matter all out beforehand, Bill was using larger words than usual. "I
got a letter for t' be delivered t' Dan Brayton, up at th' T Up and Down
Ranch, 'bout some business o' your father's. Really, I ought t' go
m'self, an' see Dan pussonally, but I ain't got time. Can't spare any o'
th' men, 'count o' th' roundup's comin' on. Don't see nothin' t' do,
except t' make you th' messenger."

Whitey was delighted. "Where is the T Up and Down?" he asked.

"'Bout a hunderd an' fifteen miles no'thwest o' here, t'other side o'
Zumbro Creek," Bill answered.

"Good!" cried Whitey. "I'll take Injun, and--"

"Wouldn't do that," Bill objected. "Dan hates Injuns, an' he'd sure be
rambunctious 'bout this one."

"All right," Whitey agreed, rather reluctantly. "If I start early
enough, Monty and I ought to make it some time to-morrow night."

If Whitey had been noticing Bill's face at that moment, he would have
seen a rather peculiar smile cross it, but he wasn't. Nor did he suspect
anything the next morning, when he met Bill at the corral before dawn.

"That Monty hoss o' yours seems sort o' lame, this mornin'," said Bill.
"Reck'n one o' th' other cayuses must 'a' kicked him, or somep'n. Dunno
as he c'd stand th' trip."

And, sure enough, Monty limped slightly as he moved about the corral.
Whitey did not know that a hair tied around a horse's leg, just above
the hock, will make the animal limp, and will not be noticeable, nor
that as a part of Bill's scheme Monty had been so treated. So Whitey was
worried about his pony, but Bill assured him that Monty would probably
be all right in a day or so--when it was too late.

"Pshaw, I'll have to ride a strange horse!" Whitey said dejectedly.

"I bin thinkin'," said Bill, "what with our bein' kinda short on stock,
just now, an' th' boys needin' all their strings for th' round-up, an'
everythin', it might be a good scheme for you t' go in th' stage. Be
sort of a change for you. You c'd ride as far as Cal Smith's ranch, an'
he'd lend you a hoss t' take you on t' th' T Up and Down."

Again the unsuspecting Whitey was delighted, as every Western boy was,
in those days, to ride on the old-fashioned but swift-moving
stage-coaches that were still the main means of communication between
many places in that sp