st finishing his somewhat lengthy letter of explanations and
directions and a passable diagram of the impertinent twist to the tail
of his machine. The moon was up, wallowing through a bank of clouds that
made weird shadows on the plain, sweeping across greasewood and sage and
barren sand like great, ungainly troops of horsemen; filling the arroyos
and the little, deep washes with inky blackness.

Up from one deep washout a close-gathered troop of shadows came thrusting
forward toward the lighter slope beyond. These did not travel in one
easterly direction as did those other scudding, wind-driven night
wraiths. They climbed straight across the wind to a bare level which they
crossed, then swerved to the north, dipped into a black hollow and
emerged, swinging back toward the south. A mile away a light twinkled
steadily--the light before which Johnny Jewel was bending his brown,
deeply cogitating head while he drew carefully the sketch of his new
airplane's tail, using the back of a steel table knife for a rule and
guessing at the general proportions.

"Midnight an' after--and he's still up and at it," chuckled one of the
dim shapes, waving an arm toward the light. "Must a took it into the
shack with 'm!"

Another one laughed rather loudly. Too loudly for a thief who did not
feel perfectly secure in his thieving.

"Betcher we c'ud taken his saddle hoss out the pen an' ride 'im off, and
he wouldn't miss 'im till he jest happened to look down and see where his
boots was wore through the bottom hoofin' it!" continued the speaker
contentedly. "Me, I wisht we c'd git hold of some of them bronks they're
bustin' now at the ranch. Tex was tellin' me they's shore some good
ones."

"What's the good of wishin'?" a man behind him growled. "We ain't doing
so worse."

"No--but broke hosses beats broomtails. Ain't no harm in wishin' they'd
turn loose and bust some for us; save us that much work."

The one who had laughed broke again into a high cackle. "What we'd oughta
do," he chortled, "is send 'em word to hereafter turn in lead ropes
with every hoss we take off 'n their hands. And by rights we'd oughta
_stip_-ilate that all hosses must be broke to lead. It ain't right--them
a gentlin' down everything that goes to army buyers, and us, here,
havin' to take what we can git. It ain't right!"

"The kid, he'll maybe help us out on that there. I wisht Sudden'd take a
notion to turn 'em all over to this-here sky-ridin' fool--"

An