id of a pint uh
brandy--"

"If I was dead sure your brains wouldn't get to leaking out your mouth,"
Dick began guardedly, "I might put you wise to something." He took a
drink of water, opened the door that he might throw out what remained in
the dipper, and made sure that no one was near the bunk-house before he
closed the door again. Mose watched him interestedly.

"You know me, Dick--I never do tell all I know," he hinted heavily.

"Well," Dick stood with his hand upon the door-knob and a sly grin upon
his face, "I ain't saying a word about anything. Only--if you might
happen to want some--eggs--for your mince pies, you might look good
under the southeast corner of the third haystack, counting from the big
corral. I believe there's a--nest--there."

"The deuce!" Mose brightened understandingly and drummed with his
fingers upon his bare, dough-caked forearm. "Do yuh know who--er--what
hen laid 'em there?"

"I do," said Dick with a rising inflection. "The head he-hen uh the
flock. But if I was going to hunt eggs, I'd take down a chiny egg and
leave it in the nest, Mose."

"But I ain't got--" Mose caught Dick's pale glance resting with what
might be considered some significance upon the vinegar jug, and he
stopped short. "That wouldn't work," he commented vaguely.

"Well, I've got to be going. Boss might can me if he caught me loafing
around here, eating pie when I ought to be working. Ford's a fine
fellow, don't you think?" He grinned and went out, and immediately
returned, complaining that he never could stand socks with a hole in the
toe, and he guessed he'd have to hunt through his war-bag for a good
pair.

Mose, as need scarcely be explained, went immediately to the stable to
hunt eggs; and Dick, in the next room, smiled to himself when he heard
the door slam behind him. Dick did not change his socks just then; he
went first into the kitchen and busied himself there, and he continued
to smile to himself. Later he went out and met Ford, who was riding
moodily up from the river field.

"Say, I'm going to be an interfering kind of a cuss, and put you next to
something," he began, with just the right degree of hesitation in his
manner. "It ain't any of my business, but--" He stopped and lighted a
cigarette. "If you'll come up to the bunk-house, I'll show you something
funny!"

Ford dismounted in silence, led his horse into the stable, and without
waiting to unsaddle, followed Dick.

"We've got to hurry, b