around Marco. Better grass here,
and they've not been chased lean."

"How many?"

"I don't know. We disagree as to numbers. But I say close to fifteen
hundred head."

"Good Lord!" boomed the big man. "It's a haul indeed.... I'll give
you our regular price, twelve fifty, delivered in Marco."

"No, thanks," replied Pan.

"Thirteen."

Pan shook his head.

"Well, young man, that's the best offer made so far. What do you want?"

"I'll sell for ten dollars a head, cash, and count and deliver them
here tomorrow."

"Sold!" snapped out Wiggate. "I can pay you tomorrow, but it'll take
another day to get my men out here."

"Thank you--Mr. Wiggate," replied Pan, suddenly rather halting in
speech. "That'll suit us."

"May we pitch camp here?"

"Sure. Get down and come in. Plenty of water and wood. Turn your
horses loose. They can't get out."

Pan had to get away then for a while from his father and the exuberant
Blinky. How could they forget the dead men over there still unburied?
Pan had read in Wiggate's look and speech and in the faces of his men,
that they had been told of the killing, and surely to the discredit of
Pan and his followers. Pan vowed he would put Wiggate in possession of
the facts. He gave himself some tasks, all the while trying to realize
the truth. Fortune had smiled upon him and Blinky. Rich in one
drive--at one fell swoop! It was unbelievable. The retrieving of his
father's losses, the new ranches in sunny Arizona, comfort and
happiness for his mother, for Bobby and Alice--and for Lucy all that
any reasonable woman could desire--these beautiful and sweet dreams had
become possibilities. All the loneliness and privation of his hard
life on the ranges had been made up for in a few short days. Pan's
eyes dimmed, and for a moment he was not quite sure of himself.

Later he mingled again with the men round the campfire. Some of the
restraint had disappeared, at least in regard to Wiggate and his men
toward everybody except Pan. That nettled him and at an opportune
moment he confronted the horse buyer.

"How'd you learn about this drive of ours?" he asked, briefly.

"Hardman's men rode in to Marco this morning," replied Wiggate, coldly.

"Ah-uh! And they told a cock-and-bull story about what happened out
here!" flashed Pan hotly.

"It placed you in a bad light, young man."

"I reckon. Well, if you or any of your outfit or anybody else calls me
a horse thief he w