ER XII. HIGH WATER

It was nearing the middle of June, and it was getting to be a very hot
June at that. For two days the trail-herd had toiled wearily over the
hills and across the coulees between the Missouri and Milk River. Then
the sky threatened for a day, and after that they plodded in the rain.

"Thank the Lord that's done with," sighed Park when he saw the last
of the herd climb, all dripping, up the north bank of the Milk River.
"To-morrow we can turn 'em loose. And I tell yuh, Bud, we didn't get
across none too soon. Yuh notice how the river's coming up? A day later
and we'd have had to hold the herd on the other side, no telling how
long."

"It is higher than usual; I noticed that," Thurston agreed absently. He
was thinking more of Mona just then than of the river. He wondered if
she would be at home. He could easily ride down there and find out.
It wasn't far; not a quarter of a mile, but he assured himself that he
wasn't going, and that he was not quite a fool, he hoped Even if she
were at home, what good could that possibly do him? Just give him
several bad nights, when he would lie in his corner of the tent and
listen to the boys snoring with a different key for every man. Such
nights were not pleasant, nor were the thoughts that caused them.

From where they were camped upon a ridge which bounded a broad coulee
on the east, he could look down upon the Stevens ranch nestling in the
bottomland, the house half hidden among the cottonwoods. Through the
last hours of the afternoon he watched it hungrily. The big corral ran
down to the water's edge, and he noted idly that three panels of the
fence extended out into the river, and that the muddy water was creeping
steadily up until at sundown the posts of the first panel barely showed
above the water.

Park came up to him and looked down upon the little valley. "I never
did see any sense in Jack Stevens building where he did," he remarked.
"There ain't a June flood that don't put his corral under water, and
some uh these days it's going to get the house. He was too lazy to dig
a well back on high ground; he'd rather take chances on having the whole
business washed off the face uh the earth."

"There must be danger of it this year if ever," Thurston observed
uneasily. "The river is coming up pretty fast, it seems to me. It must
have raised three feet since we crossed this afternoon."

"I'll course there's danger, with all that snow coming out uh the
moun