how he had failed to obey
her commands; and if he had heard her call him a coward. He had often
wondered that, but Park had a way of keeping things to himself, and
Thurston could never quite bring himself to open the subject boldly. At
any rate, if Park had heard, he hoped that he understood how it was and
did not secretly despise him for it. Women, he told himself bitterly,
are never quite just.

After the four o'clock supper he and Bob MacGregor went up the valley
to relieve the men on herd. There was one nice thing about Park as a
foreman: he tried to pair off his crew according to their congeniality.
That was why Thurston usually stood guard with Bob, whom he liked better
than any of the others-always excepting Park himself.

"I brought my gun along," Bob told him apologetically when they were
left to themselves. "It's a habit I've got when I know there's bad men
rampaging around the country. The boys kinda gave me the laugh when
they seen me haul it out uh my war bag, but I just told 'em to go to
thunder."

"Do you think those--"

"Naw. Uh course not. I just pack it on general principles, same as an
old woman packs her umbrella."

"Say, this is dead easy! The bunch is pretty well broke, ain't it? I'm
sure glad to see old Milk River again; this here trailing cattle gets
plumb monotonous." He got down and settled his back comfortably against
a rock. Below them spread the herd, feeding quietly. "Yes, sir, this is
sure a snap," he repeated, after he had made himself a smoke. "They's
only two ways a bunch could drift if they wanted to which they don't-up
the river, or down. This hill's a little too steep for 'em to tackle
unless they was crowded hard. Good feed here, too.

"Too bad yuh don't smoke, Bud. There's nothing like a good, smooth rock
to your back and a cigarette in your face, on a nice, lazy day like
this. It's the only kind uh day-herding I got any use for."

"I'll take the rock to my back, if you'll just slide along and make
room," Thurston laughed. "I don't hanker for a cigarette, but I do wish
I had my Kodak."

"Aw, t'ell with your Kodak!" Bob snorted. "Can't yuh carry this layout
in your head? I've got a picture gallery in mine that I wouldn't trade
for a farm; I don't need no Kodak in mine, thankye. You just let this
here view soak into your system, Bud, where yuh can't lose it."

Thurston did. Long after he could close his eyes and see it in every
detail; the long, green slope with hundreds o