g his absence, a number of the best of the beef cattle
had been moved to the meadowlands. He set a man to close-herd there;
he sent other men to bring in still other straying stock; he himself
judged every single head, cutting out those he deemed unfit; finally he
saw the growing herd driven down into the choicest of his meadow
grazing land to fatten.

All of this required days. Between breakfast and supper every man with
the outfit changed his horse several times; Howard, the hardest rider
of them all, changed horses five times the first day. He and his men
showed signs of the strain they put upon their bodies; they were a
gaunt, lean-jawed, wild-eyed lot. There was little frolic left in them
when night came; they were short-spoken, prone to grow fierce over
trifles. But there was not a sullen or discontented man among them.
They took what came; they had known times of stress before; they could
look forward to a day to come of boisterous relaxation and money to be
spent in town. Though the subject had never been mentioned, they fully
understood that there would be a bonus coming and a glorious holiday.
They would see the old man through now: later he would square the
account.

Eat, sleep and work; there was nothing else in their schedule. The
times when Howard had a few moments over a cigarette to think quietly
of Helen were times when he could not go to her: in the dimness of the
coming day when he was going out to saddle and she would still be
asleep; in the dark of the day ended when she would be going to bed.
But he held grimly to his task here, saying to himself that in a few
days he would ride to her and with something to say; wondering how she
would listen; sometimes aglow with his hope, sometimes fearing. And,
as he thought of her, so did he think often of John Carr. He did not
know if Carr had gone East or if still he were a daily guest at the
Longstreet home. Not a man of his riders had been beyond the confines
of the grazing lands; no one had come in from the outside. There was
no news.

So a full week sped by. Then for the first time came both opportunity
and excuse for Howard to leave the ranch. Chuck Evans had ridden into
San Ramon to see if there were a market for a string of mules; he
brought back word that a teamster named Roberts in the new mining-camp
had been making inquiries. It seemed that he wanted high-grade stock
and had the money to pay for it. Everything was running smoothly