d the "sky-ridin' fool," at that moment carefully reading his order
over the third time, honestly believed that he was watching over the
interests of the Rolling R, and was respected and would presently be
envied by all who heard his name. I wish he could have heard those
night-riders talking about him, jeering even at the Rolling R for
trusting him to guard their property. This chapter would have ended with
a glorious fight out there under the moon, because Johnny would not have
stopped to count noses before he started in on them.

But even though horse thieves are riding boldly and laughing as they
ride, you cannot expect the bullets to fly when honest men have not yet
discovered that they are being robbed. Johnny never dreamed that duty
called him out on the range that night. He went to bed with his brain a
whirligig in which airplanes revolved dizzily, and the marauders rode
unhindered to wherever they were going. Thus do dramatic possibilities go
to waste in real life.

CHAPTER TWELVE

JOHNNY'S AMAZING RUN OF LUCK STILL HOLDS ITS PACE

On the shady side of the depot at Agua Dulce, Johnny sat himself down on
a truck whose iron parts were still hot from the sun that had lately
shone full upon it. With lips puckered into a soundless whistle, and
fingers that trembled a little with eagerness, he proceeded to unwrap one
of the parcels he had just taken from the express office. On another
truck that had stood longer in the shade, a young tramp in greasy
overalls and cap inhaled the last precious wisps of smoke from a
cigarette burned down to an inch of stub, and watched Johnny with a glum
kind of speculation. Johnny sensed his presence and the speculative
interest, and read the latter as the preparation for a "touch." And
Johnny was not feeling particularly charitable after having to pay a
seven-dollar C.O.D. besides the express charges. He showed all the
interest he felt in his packages and refused to encourage the hobo by so
much as a glance.

He examined the slender ribs, bending them and slipping them through his
fingers with the pleasurable feeling that he was inspecting and testing
as an expert would have done. He read the label on a tin of "dope,"
unwrapped a coil of wire cable and felt it, went at a parcel of
unbleached linen, found the end and held a corner up to the light and
squinted at it with his head perked sidewise.

Whereupon the hobo gave a limber twist of his lank body that inclined him
c