cleaned up the
varmints around White Slides. An' sure I was imposed on," explained
the rancher.

"Some good-lookin' hounds in the bunch," replied Wade. "An' there's
hardly too many. I'll train two packs, so I can rest one when the
other's huntin'."

"Wal, I'll be dog-goned!" ejaculated Belllounds, with relief. "I sure
thought you'd roar. All this rabble to take care of!"

"No trouble after I've got acquainted," said Wade. "Have they been
hunted any?"

"Some of the boys took out a bunch. But they split on deer tracks an'
elk tracks an' Lord knows what all. Never put up a lion! Then again
Billings took some out after a pack of coyotes, an' gol darn me if the
coyotes didn't lick the hounds. An' wuss! Jack, my son, got it into his
head thet he was a hunter. The other mornin' he found a fresh lion track
back of the corral. An' he ups an' puts the whole pack of hounds on the
trail. I had a good many more hounds in the pack than you see now. Wal,
anyway, it was great to hear the noise thet pack made. Jack lost every
blamed hound of them. Thet night an' next day an' the followin' they
straggled in. But twenty some never did come back."

Wade laughed. "They may come yet. I reckon, though, they've gone home
where they came from. Are any of these hounds recommended?"

"Every consarned one of them," declared Belllounds.

"That's funny. But I guess it's natural. Do you know for sure whether
you bought any good dogs?"

"Yes, I gave fifty dollars for two hounds. Got them of a friend in
Middle Park whose pack killed off the lions there. They're good dogs,
trained on lion, wolf, an' bear."

"Pick 'em out," said Wade.

With a throng of canines crowding and fawning round him, and snapping at
one another, it was difficult for the rancher to draw the two particular
ones apart so they could be looked over. At length he succeeded, and
Wade drove back the rest of the pack.

"The big fellar's Sampson an' the other's Jim," said Belllounds.

Sampson was a huge hound, gray and yellow, with mottled black marks,
very long ears, and big, solemn eyes. Jim, a good-sized dog, but small
in comparison with the other, was black all over, except around the nose
and eyes. Jim had many scars. He was old, yet not past a vigorous age,
and he seemed a quiet, dignified, wise hound, quite out of his element
in that mongrel pack.

"If they're as good as they look we're lucky," said Wade, as he tied the
ends of his rope round their necks. "Now are