ry in as a junior
partner, the purchase price to be paid in installments to be earned out
of the profits of the business.

"Course I don't want to take you away from the law if you're set on
that profession, but if you don't really care--" Dave lifted an
eyebrow in a question.

"I think I'd like the law, but I know I would like better an active
outdoor life. That's not the point, Mr. Dingwell. I can't take
something for nothing. You can get a hundred men who know far more
about cattle than I do. Why do you pick me?"

"I've got reasons a-plenty. Right off the bat here are some of them.
I'm under obligations to Jack Beaudry and I'd like to pay my debt to
his son. I've got no near kin of my own. I need a partner, but it
isn't one man out of a dozen I can get along with. Most old cowmen are
rutted in their ways. You don't know a thing about the business. But
you can learn. You're teachable. You are not one of these wise guys.
Then, too, I like you, son. I don't want a partner that rubs me the
wrong way. Hell, my why-fors all simmer down to one. You're the
partner I want, Roy."

"If you find I don't suit you, will you let me know?"

"Sure. But there is no chance of that." Dave shook hands with him
joyously. "It's a deal, boy."

"It's a deal," agreed Beaudry.

Chapter XVI

Roy is Invited to Take a Drink

Dingwell gave a fishing-party next day. His invited guests were
Sheriff Sweeney, Royal Beaudry, Pat Ryan, and Superintendent Elder, of
the Western Express Company. Among those present, though at a
respectable distance, were Ned Rutherford and Brad Charlton.

The fishermen took with them neither rods nor bait. Their flybooks
were left at home. Beaudry brought to the meeting-place a quarter-inch
rope and a grappling-iron with three hooks. Sweeney and Ryan carried
rifles and the rest of the party revolvers.

Dave himself did the actual fishing. After the grappling-hook had been
attached to the rope, he dropped it into Big Creek from a large rock
under the bridge that leads to town from Lonesome Park. He hooked his
big fish at the fourth cast and worked it carefully into the shallow
water. Roy waded into the stream and dragged the catch ashore. It
proved to be a gunnysack worth twenty thousand dollars.

Elder counted the sacks inside. "Everything is all right. How did you
come to drop the money here?"

"I'm mentioning no names, Mr. Elder. But I was so fixed that I
couldn't tu