glad, for it would
obliterate every print and make tracking impossible. He had kept to the
rocks, as the unshod and now foot-sore horses bore evidence, but, even so,
there was always a chance of tell-tale prints.

"I can take it easy after I get to water," he told himself. "This water
business is ser'ous"--he looked uneasily at the stretch of desolation
ahead of him--"but unless the Injuns lied, they's _some_.

"I hope the boys are to home," he went on, "for if they are it won't take
us long to work these brands over. When they take 'em off my hands and I
gets my wad, I'll soak it away, me--Smith. I'll hand it in at the bank,
and I'll say to the dude at the winder, 'Feller,' I'll say, 'me and a
little Schoolmarm are goin' to housekeepin' after while, so just hang on
to that till I calls.'" Smith grinned appreciatively at the picture.

"His eyes will stick out till you could snare 'em with a log-chain, for I
ain't known as a marryin' man." His face sobered. "I've got to get to work
and get a wad--she shot that into me straight; and she's right. I couldn't
ask no woman like her to hang out her own wash in front of a two-roomed
shack. I got to get the _dinero_, and between man and man, Smith, like you
and me, I'm nowise particular how I gets it, so long as she don't know.
I'll take any old chance, me--Smith. And dead men's eyes hasn't got the
habit of follerin' me around in the dark, like some I've knowed. She'd
think I was a horrible feller if--but shucks! What's done's done."

He lifted his arms and stretched them toward the skyline, and his voice
vibrated:

"I love you, girl! I love you, and I couldn't hurt you no more nor a
baby!"

Before he coiled the picket-ropes and started the horses moving, he got
down on his knees and took a mouthful of water from a lukewarm pool. He
spat it upon the ground in disgust.

"That's worse nor pizen," he declared with a grimace. "You bet I've got to
strike water to-day somehow. The horses won't hardly touch this, and
they're all ga'nted up for the want of it. There ought to be water over
there in some of them gulches, seems-like"--he looked anxiously at the
expanse stretching interminably to the northeast--"and I'll have to haze
'em along until we hit it."

His tired horse seemed to sag beneath his weight as he landed heavily in
the saddle; and the band of foot-sore horses, the hair of their necks and
legs stiff with sweat and dust, bore little resemblance to the spirited
anim