-"

"Not a thing."

The New Yorker felt that he was not expressing himself at all happily.
What he wanted was to show this young fellow that he had put him under
a lifelong obligation he could never hope to wipe out.

"If you ever come to New York--"

"I'm not liable to go there. I don't belong there any more than you do
here. Better drift back to Tucson, stranger. The _parada_ is no place
for a tenderfoot. You're in luck you're not shy one li'l' girl tromped
to death. Take a fool's advice and hit the trail for town _pronto_
before you bump into more trouble."

The rider swung round his pony and cantered back to the beef herd.

He left behind him a much-annoyed clubman, a perplexed and distressed
father, and a girl both hurt and indignant at his brusque rejection of
her father's friendly advances. The episode of the fifty-dollar bill
had taken place entirely under cover. The man who had given the note
and the one who had refused to accept it were the only ones who knew of
it. The girl saw only that this splendid horseman who had snatched her
from under the very feet of the _ladino_ had shown a boorish
discourtesy. The savor had gone out of her adventure. Her heart was
sick with disappointment and indignation.

CHAPTER I

CONCERNING A STREET TWELVE MILES LONG

"I like yore outfit," Red Hollister grumbled. "You're nice boys, and
good to yore mothers--what few of you ain't wore their gray hairs to
the grave with yore frolicsome ways. You know yore business and you
got a good cook. But I'm darned if I like this thing of two meals a
day, one at a quarter to twelve at night and the other a quarter past
twelve, also and likewise at night."

A tenderfoot might have thought that Hollister had some grounds for
complaint. For weeks he had been crawling out of his blankets in the
pre-dawn darkness of 3 A.M. He had sat shivering down beside a
camp-fire to swallow a hurried breakfast and had swung into the saddle
while night was still heavy over the land. He had ridden after cattle
wild as deer and had wrestled with _ladino_ steers till long after the
stars were up. In the chill night he had eaten another meal, rolled up
in his blankets, and fallen into instant heavy sleep. And five minutes
later--or so at least it seemed to him--the cook had pounded on the
triangle for him to get up.

None the less Red's grumbling was a pretense. He would not have been
anywhere else for twice the pay. This was