't
be any need to start feeding the calves, unless it storms; and if it
does, Jim and Jack will go ahead, all right. I'm going to let Dick and
Curly go. We don't need more than two men besides Walt, from now on."

"I wish Chester was here," said Mrs. Kate ambiguously.

Ford did not ask her why she wished that. He told her good-by as hastily
as if he had to run to catch a train, and left her. He hoped he would be
lucky enough to see Josephine--and then he hoped quite as sincerely that
he would not see her, after all. It would be easier to go without her
clear eyes asking him why.

What he meant to do first was to find Rock, and see if he had been
sober enough that night in Sunset to remember what happened at the
marriage ceremony, and could give him some clue as to the woman's
identity and whereabouts. If he failed there, he intended to hunt up the
preacher. That, also, presented certain difficulties, but Ford was in
the mood to overcome obstacles. Once he discovered who the woman was, it
seemed to him that there should be no great amount of trouble in getting
free. As he understood it, he was not the man she had intended to marry;
and not being the man she wanted, she certainly could not be
over-anxious to cling to him.

While he galloped down the trail to town, he went over the whole thing
again in his mind, to see if there might be some simpler plan than the
one he had formed in the night.

"No, sir--it's Rock I've got to see first," he concluded. "But Lord only
knows where I'll find him; Rock never does camp twice in the same place.
Never knew him to stay more than a month with one outfit. But I'll find
him, all right!"

And by one of those odd twists of circumstances which sets men to
wondering if there is such a thing as telepathy and a specifically
guiding hand and the like, it was Rock and none other whom he met fairly
in the trail before he had gone another mile.

"Well, I'll be gol darned!" Ford whispered incredulously to himself, and
pulled up short in the trail to wait for him.

Rock came loping up with elbows flapping loosely, as was his ungainly
habit. His grin was wide and golden as of yore, his hat at the same
angle over his right eyebrow.

"Gawd bless you, brother! May peace ride behind your cantle!" he
declaimed unctuously, for Rock was a character, in his way, and in his
speech was not in the least like other men. "Whither wendest thou?"

"My wending is all over for the present," said Ford,