denly it was night. All motion had ceased.

When he came to, Mrs. Bailey was kneeling beside him and ringed around
were the curious faces of the cowboys.

"I'm the Ridin' Kid from Powder River," muttered Pete. "Did I make it?"

"That horse liked to killed you," said Mrs. Bailey. "If I'd 'a' knew
the boys was up to this . . . and him just a boy! Jim Bailey, you
ought to be ashamed of yourself!" Ma Bailey wiped Pete's face with her
apron and put her motherly arm beneath his head. "If he was my boy,
Jim Bailey, I'd--I'd--show you!"

Pete raised on his elbow. "I'm all right, mam. It wa'n't his fault.
I said I could ride that hoss. Did I make it?"

"Accordin' to your watch here," said the puncher who held Pete's
irresponsible timepiece, "you rid him for four hours and sixteen
minutes. The hands was a-fannin' it round like a windmill in a
cyclone. But she's quit, now."

"Do I git the job?" queried Pete.

"You get right to bed! It's a wonder every bone in your body ain't
broke!" exclaimed Ma Bailey.

"Bed!" snorted Pete. He rose stiffly. His hat was gone and one spur
was missing. His legs felt heavy. His neck ached; but his black eyes
were bright and blinking.

"Goodness!" exclaimed Mrs. Bailey. "Why, the boy is comin' to all
right!"

"You bet!" said Pete, grinning, although he felt far from all right.
He realized that he rather owed Mrs. Bailey something in the way of an
expression of gratitude for her interest. "I--you, you sure can make
the best pie ever turned loose!" he asserted.

"Pie!" gasped the foreman's wife, "and him almost killed by that blue
devil there! You come right in the house, wash your face, and I'll fix
you up."

"The kid's all right, mother," said Bailey placatingly.

Mrs. Bailey turned on her husband. "That's not your fault, Jim Bailey.
Such goin's-on! You great, lazy hulk, you, to go set a boy to ridin'
that hoss that you dassent ride yourself. If he was my boy--"

"Well, I'm willin'," said Pete, who began to realize the power behind
the throne.

"Bless his heart!" Mrs. Bailey put her arm about his shoulders. Pete
was mightily embarrassed. No woman had ever caressed him, so far as he
could remember. The men would sure think him a softy, to allow all
this strange mothering; but he could not help himself. Evidently the
foreman's wife was a power in the land, for the men had taken her
berating silently and respectfully. But before they reached the house
Pete