ight close. Old Dobe
knows where it is. Just lift off your saddle and turn him loose--or
mebby you better hobble him the first night. He ain't used to travelin'
with you, yet."

"I have a stake-rope," said Bartley.

"A hoss would starve on a stake-rope out here. I'll make you a pair of
hobbles, pronto. Then he'll stick with my hosses."

"Where are they?"

"Runnin' around out there somewhere. They never stray far from camp."

Bartley watched Cheyenne untwist a piece of soft rope and make a pair of
serviceable hobbles.

"Now he'll travel easy and git enough grass to keep him in shape. And
them hobbles won't burn him. Any time you're shy of hobbles, that's how
to make 'em."

Later, as Bartley sat by the fire and ate, Cheyenne asked him if
Panhandle had been seen in town since the night of the crap game.
Bartley told him that he had seen nothing of Panhandle.

"He's ridin' this country, somewhere," said Cheyenne. "You're headed for
Steve's ranch?"

"Yes."

"Well, Steve'll sure give you the time of your life."

"I think I'll stay there a few days, if the Senator can make room for
me."

"Room! Wait till you see Steve's place. And say, if you want to get wise
to how they run a cattle outfit, just throw in with the boys, tell 'em
you're a plumb tenderfoot and can't ride a bronc, nohow, and that you
never took down a rope in your life, and that all you know about cattle
is what you've et, and then the boys will use you white. There's nothin'
puts a fella in wrong with the boys quicker than for him to let on he is
a hand when he ain't. 'Course the boys won't mind seem' you top a bronc
and get throwed, just to see if you got sand."

Meanwhile Cheyenne manipulated the coffee-pot and skillet most
effectively. And while Bartley ate his supper, Cheyenne talked,
seemingly glad to have a companion to talk to.

"You see," he began, apropos of nothing in particular, "entertainin'
folks with the latest news is my long suit. I'm kind of a travelin'
show, singin' and packin' the news around to everybody. 'Course folks
read the paper and hear about somebody gettin' married, or gettin' shot
or leavin' the country, and then they ask me the how of it. I been
ramblin' so long that I know the pedigrees of 'most everybody down this
way.

"Newspapers is all right, but folks get plumb hungry to git their news
with human trimmin's. I recollec' I come mighty near gettin' in trouble,
onct. Steve had some folks visitin' down to his r