ew impatient. "Wal?" he said at last; "y' ain't bustin' wi'
'preciation."

"On the contrary, I appreciate your shrewdness and kindly interest on
my behalf most cordially," Tresler replied, dropping the stirrup and
turning to his companion; "but, you see, there's one little weakness
in the arrangement. Jake's liable to underestimate the importance of
the nocturnal visits unless he knows the real facts. Besides----"

"Besides," broke in Joe, with an impatience bred of his reading
through Tresler's lame objection, "you jest notion to rile Jake some.
Wal, you're a fool, Tresler--a dog-gone fool! Guess you'll strike a
snag, an' snags mostly hurts. Howsum, I ain't no wet-nurse, an' ef you
think to bluff Jake Harnach, get right ahead an' bluff. An' when you
bluff, bluff hard, an' back it, or you'll drop your wad sudden. Guess
I'll turn in."

Joe moved off and Tresler followed. At the door of the bunkhouse they
parted, for Joe slept in a lean-to against the kitchen of the
rancher's house. They had said "good-night," and Joe was moving away
when he suddenly changed his mind and came back again.

"Say, ther' ain't nothin' like a 'tenderfoot' fer bein' a fool, 'less
it's a settin' hen," he said, with profound contempt but with evident
good-will. "You're kind o' gritty, Tresler, I guess, but mebbe you'll
be ast to git across a tol'ble broncho in the mornin'. That's as may
be. But ef it's so, jest take two thinks 'fore settin' your six foot
o' body on a saddle built fer a feller o' five foot one. It ain't
reason'ble, an' it's dangerous. It's most like tryin' to do that as
isn't, never wus, and ain't like to be, an' if it did, wouldn't amount
to a heap anyway, 'cep' it's a heap o' foolishness."

Tresler laughed. "All right. Two into one won't go without leaving a
lot over. Good-night, Joe."

"So long. Them fellers as gits figgerin' mostly gits crazed fer doin'
what's impossible. Guess I ain't stuck on figgers nohow."

And the man vanished into the night, while Tresler passed into the
bunkhouse to get what little sleep his first night as a ranchman might
afford him.

CHAPTER V

TRESLER BEGINS HIS EDUCATION

But the story of the nocturnal visit of the horse thieves did not
reach the foreman next morning. Jake hailed Tresler down to the
corrals directly after breakfast. He was to have a horse told off to
him, and this matter, and the presence of others, made him postpone
his purpose to a more favorable time.

When