ie secretly team this array all the way from
Buckhorn to Percy's house, where it was duly ambushed and entrenched, to
await the fatal day. As luck would have it, or seemed to have it,
Dinky-Dunk had to hit the trail for overnight, to see about the
registration of his transfers for his new half-section, at the town of
H----. So as soon as Dinky-Dunk was out of sight I hurried through my
work and had Tumble-Weed and Bronk headed for the old Titchborne Ranch.

There I arrived about mid-afternoon, and what a time we had, getting
those things unpacked, and looking them over, and planning and talking!
But the whole thing was spoilt.

We forgot to tie the horses. So while we were having tea Bronk and
Tumble-Weed hit the trail, on their own hook. They made for home,
harness and all, but of course I never knew this at the time. We looked
and looked, came back for supper, and then started out again. We
searched until it got dark. My feet were like lead, and I couldn't have
walked another mile. I was so stiff and tired I simply had to give up.
Percy worried, of course, for we had no way of sending word to
Dinky-Dunk. Then we sat down and talked over possibilities, like a
couple of castaways on a Robinson Crusoe island. Percy offered to bunk
in the stable, and let me have the shack. But I wouldn't hear of that.
In the first place, I felt pretty sure Percy was what they call a
"lunger" out here, and I didn't relish the idea of sleeping in a
tuberculous bed. I asked for a blanket and told him that I was going to
sleep out under the wagon, as I'd often done with Dinky-Dunk. Percy
finally consented, but this worried him too. He even brought out his
"big-game" gun, so I'd have protection, and felt the grass to see if it
was damp, and declared he couldn't sleep on a mattress when he knew I
was out on the hard ground. I told him that I loved it, and to go to
bed, for I wanted to get out of some of my armor-plate. He went,
reluctantly.

It was a beautiful night, and not so cold, with scarcely a breath of
wind stirring. I lay looking out through the wheel-spokes at the Milky
Way, and was just dropping off when Percy came out still again. He was
in a quilted dressing-gown and had a blanket over his shoulders. It made
him look for all the world like Father Time. He wanted to know if I was
all right, and had brought me out a pillow--which I didn't use. Then he
sat down on the prairie-floor, near the wagon, and smoked and talked. He
pointed