ldn't be worth a nickel to
us if he wasn't cute."

"And it's us that takes the chances," readily agreed the guard.

"Yeah--look at the chance I took jus' now! Talked to old Sudden over the
'phone, stalling along like I was the kid. Got away with it, at that. I'd
like to see Tex--"

"Aw, Tex ain't in it with _you_. When it comes right down to fine
work--" So, feeding the vanity of the boss with tidbits of crude
flattery, which the boss swallowed greedily as nine tenths of us would
do, they jogged along down the pebbly bottom of Sinkhole Creek where
it had gone dry, turned into the first rocky draw that pointed
southeastward, and so passed on and away from the camp where Tex's
thoughts were clinging anxiously.

When they had carefully mended the fence that had been opened, and had
obliterated all traces of horses passing through, they rode home to their
beds perfectly satisfied with the night's work, and looking forward to
the next night.

A hot, windy day went over the arid range; a day filled with contented
labor for some, strenuous activity for some others--Johnny Jewel among
these--and more or less anxious waiting for a very few.

That day the fifteen stolen horses, urged forward by grimy, swearing
Mexicans and a white man or two, trotted heavily southward, keeping
always to the sheltered draws and never showing upon a ridge until after
a lookout had waved that all was well.

That day Mary V rode aimlessly to the western hills, because she saw
three of the boys hiking off toward the south and she did not know where
they were going.

That day Johnny Jewel suffered chronic heart jumpings, lest the four
wide-blinkered mules look around again and, seeing themselves still
pursued by the great, ungainly contraption on the lengthened wagon they
drew, run away and upset their precariously balanced load.

That day the man who had so obligingly answered the telephone for Johnny
busied himself with various plans and preparations for the night, and
retraced the trail down the rocky draws to the fence where horses and
riders had crossed, to make sure, by daylight, that no trace had been
left of their passing, and met Tex over by Snake Ridge for a brief and
very satisfactory conference.

So the day blew itself red in the face, and then purple, with a tender,
rose-violet haze under its one crimson, lazily drooping eye. And at last
it wrapped itself in its royal, gemmed robe, and settled quietly down to
sleep. Night came