ups and looked
down upon the mass of broad, sleek backs moving restlessly in and out
and around, with no aim but to seek some way of escape. The bawling
made speech difficult at any distance, and the dust sent him coughing
away.

"I think, William," he said, when he was again beside Billy, "I shall
leave this matter to your own judgment. What I want is to get every
cent possible out of the beef we ship; the details I am content to
leave with you, for in my ignorance I should probably botch the job. I
suppose we can arrange it so that, in case the market rises suddenly,
you can rush in a trainload at short notice?"

"Give me two weeks to get action on the range stuff, and I can have a
trainload on the way to Chicago so quick it'll make your head whirl.
I'll make it a point to be ready on short notice. And before we pull
out I'll give yuh a kinda programme uh the next three or four weeks,
so yuh can send a man out and he'll have some show uh finding us. And
I won't bring in another herd till you send word--only yuh want to
bear in mind that I can't set out there on a pinnacle till snow flies,
waiting for prices to raise in Chicago. Yuh don't want to lose sight
uh them nine hundred calves we've got to gather yet."

It was all well enough for Billy to promise largely and confidently,
but he failed to take into account one small detail over which he
had no control. So perfect was his system of gathering beef--and he
gathered only the best, so as to catch the top price--that when Dill's
message came, short and hurried but punctiliously worded and perfectly
punctuated, that beef had raised to four-thirty and "Please rush
shipment as per agreement," Billy had his trainload of beef in
Tower, ready to load just three days after receiving notice. But
here interfered the detail over which he had no control. Dill had
remembered to order the cars, but shipping was heavy and cars were not
to be had.

Two long, heartrending weeks they waited just outside Tower, held
there within easy reach--and upon mighty short feed for the herd--by
the promises of the railroad management and the daily assurance of the
agent that the cars might be along at any time within four hours. (He
always said four hours, which was the schedule time for fast freight
between Tower and the division point.) Two long weeks, while from the
surrounding hills they watched long stock trains winding snakily over
the prairie toward Chicago. During those maddening day