azy R dogmatically. "Bob, you better put Dave with
the crew of that wildcat you're spuddin' in, don't you reckon?"

"I'll put him on afternoon tower in place of that fellow Scott. I've been
intendin' to fire him soon as I could get a good man."

"Much obliged to you both. Hope you've found that good man," said
Sanders.

"We have. Ain't either of us worryin' about that." With a quizzical smile
Crawford raised a point that was in his mind. "Say, son, you talk a heap
more like a book than you used to. You didn't slip one over on us and go
to college, did you?"

"I went to school in the penitentiary," Dave said.

He had been immured in a place of furtive, obscene whisperings, but he
had found there not only vice. There was the chance of an education. He
had accepted it at first because he dared not let himself be idle in his
spare time. That way lay degeneration and the loss of his manhood. He had
studied under competent instructors English, mathematics, the Spanish
grammar, and mechanical drawing, as well as surveying and stationary
engineering. He had read some of the world's best literature. He had
waded through a good many histories. If his education in books was
lopsided, it was in some respects more thorough than that of many a
college boy.

Dave did not explain all this. He let his simple statement of fact stand
without enlarging on it. His life of late years had tended to make him
reticent.

"Heard from Burns yet about that fishin' job on Jackpot Number Three?"
Bob asked Crawford.

"Only that he thinks he hooked the tools and lost 'em again. Wisht you'd
run out in the mo'nin', son, and see what's doin'. I got to go out to the
ranch."

"I'll drive out to-night and take Dave with me if he feels up to it. Then
we'll know the foreman keeps humpin'."

"Fine and dandy." The cattleman turned to Sanders. "But I reckon you
better stay right here and rest up. Time enough for you to go to work
when yore shoulder's all right."

"Won't hurt me a bit to drive out with Bob. This thing's going to keep me
awake anyhow. I'd rather be outdoors."

They drove out in the buckboard behind the half-broken colts. The young
broncos went out of town to a flying start. They raced across the plain
as hard as they could tear, the light rig swaying behind them as the
wheels hit the high spots. Not till they had worn out their first wild
energy was conversation possible.

Bob told of his change of occupation.

"Started dressin'