were most vital to his bank account.
It would, of course, take two or three days to gather in all the horses
on Sinkhole range, and the restless lot in the corral yonder might be a
large or a small part of the entire number down there. Sudden was not
worrying so much over those that were left, as he was over what had been
stolen. It seemed to him that there ought to be some way of getting those
horses back. He was trying to think of the way.

"Oh, Bill!" he called, getting stiffly to his feet. "Let's get into the
cabin and go over those tally books." Which was merely a subterfuge to
get Bill away from the wagon without letting the boys know something was
wrong. Bill got up, brushed the dirt off his trousers with a flick of his
fingers, lighted the cigarette he had just rolled and followed the boss.

"Bill, what's your idea about this horse-stealing, anyway? If they were
going to steal horses, why didn't they run off a whole herd and be done
with it?"

Bill seated himself on Johnny's bunk, spat toward the stove, pulled a
splinter off the rough board of the bunk's side, and began carefully
nipping off tiny shreds with his finger nails. Bill, by all these signs
and tokens, was limbering up his keen old range-bred wits for action.

"Well, I'll tell yuh. The way to get at the thing is to figger out why
you'd do it, s'posin' you was in their place. Now if it was _me_ that was
stealin' these hawses--say, s'posin' I was aimin' to sell 'em over across
the line--I'd aim to take the best I could git holt of, because I'd be
wanting 'em for good, all-round, tough saddle hawses. Them greasers, the
way they're hellin' around over the country shootin' and fightin', they
got to have good hawses under 'em. Er they want good hawses, if they can
git 'em.

"Well, s'posin' 't I was out to furnish what I could. Chances is I
wouldn't have a very big bunch in with me--say five or six of us, jest
enough to handle a few head at a time. I'd aim to git 'em over acrost
the line first shot. Anybody would do that. Well, s'posin' I didn't
have a place that'd take care of very many at a time. Feed's pore, over
there, and a hawse has got to eat. These here hawses are in purty fair
condition, and I'd aim to keep 'em in flesh whilst I was breakin'
'em--I'd git better prices. And then again, mebby I wouldn't want too
many on hand at once, in case some party come along with the gall to loot
'em instead of buy 'em.

"I figger I'd be plumb content if I