ght. I'd like the satisfaction of
bringing them both in, single-handed, but it isn't fair to the Colonel to
take any chances of their getting away."

"Who is it?"

"Smith."

"That bastard with his teeth stickin' out?"

Ralston laughed assent.

"Pickin's!" cried Babe, with gusto. "I'd like to kill that feller every
mornin' before breakfast. Will I go? Will I? _Will_ I?" Babe's crescendo
ended in a joyous whoop of exultation. "Wait till I ride back and tell the
Colonel, and git my ca'tridge belt. I take it off of an evenin' these
tranquil times."

Ralston turned his horse and started back, so engrossed in thoughts of the
work ahead of him that it was not until Babe overtook him that he
remembered he had forgotten to ask Babe's business with him.

"Well, I guess the old Colonel was tickled when he heard you'd spotted the
rustlers," said Babe, as he reined in beside him. "He wanted to come
along--did for a fact, and him nearly seventy. He'd push the lid off his
coffin and climb out at his own funeral if somebody'd happen to mention
that thieves was brandin' his calves."

"You said you had started to the ranch to see me."

"Oh, yes--I forgot. Your father sent word to the Colonel that he was
sellin' off his cattle and goin' into sheep, and wanted the Colonel to
let you know."

"The poor old Governor! It'll about break his heart, I know; and I should
be there. At his time of life it's a pretty hard and galling thing to quit
cattle--to be forced out of the business into sheep. It's like bein' made
to change your politics or religion against your will."

"'Fore I'd wrangle woolers," declared Babe, "I'd hold up trains or rob
dudes or do 'most any old thing. Say, I've rid by sheep-wagons when I was
durn near starvin' ruther than eat with a sheep-herder or owe one a favor.
Where do you find a man like the Colonel in sheep?" demanded Babe. "You
don't find 'em. Nothin' but a lot of upstart sheep-herders, that's got
rich in five years and don't know how to act."

"Oh, you're prejudiced, Babe. Not all sheepmen are muckers any more than
all cattlemen are gentlemen."

"I'm not prejudiced a-_tall_!" declared Babe excitedly. "I'm perfectly
fair and square. Woolers is demoralizin'. Associate with woolers, and it
takes the spirit out of a feller quicker'n cookin.' In five years you
won't be half the man you are now if you go into sheep. I'll sure hate to
see it!" His voice was all but pathetic as he contemplated Ralston's
do