w sounds more soothing at night than the falling of
rain-drops upon the shingles over one's head, but in the present
instance the music was anything but welcome to Jack and Fred. It meant
that there could be no hunting on the morrow, and probably not for
several days. Their time in Wyoming was so limited that they begrudged
an hour of enforced idleness.

"But what's the use of kicking?" asked Fred, after they had fully
discussed the situation; "it can't be helped."

Nevertheless, they condoled with each other for some time, until, lulled
by the gentle patter, they floated off once more into the land of Nod,
from which they did not emerge until morning.

The first doleful fact that impressed them was that it was still
raining. A peep through the single front window with which their room
was provided showed the dull leaden sky, with its infinite reservoir,
from which the drops were descending in streams that bid fair to last
for days and weeks. The air was chilly, and the wood fire burning in the
adjoining room was grateful.

The boys were surprised by a characteristic fact. At some time previous
to their emerging from their sleeping-room Jim and Ira had departed to
take their turn in looking after the cattle, while Bart and Mort, as
they were called, had come in to spend the day and night at the
building. When they saw the boys they greeted them pleasantly and
conversed for some time. Blair showed himself a man of education, and it
came out afterward that he was a college graduate, who, having been
threatened with pulmonary trouble, had gone to Arizona and engaged in
the cattle business. The experiment wrought a cure, and he was now one
of the sturdiest of the five men, not afraid to face the more rigorous
climate of the North and to expose himself to all sorts of weather. It
was a surprise, indeed, to Jack Dudley and Fred Greenwood, in the course
of the day, when the conversation happened to drift to the subject of
higher mathematics, to find this cowboy could give them instruction in
the most abstruse problems they had ever attempted to solve. Thus,
although they would have preferred to be away on a hunt, they found the
time less monotonous than anticipated.

"This will let up afore night," said Hank, much to the delight of his
young visitors, "and to-morrow will be clear."

"I hope it will last several days," ventured Fred.

"So it will," remarked the cowman, with that air of assurance which
showed he was more