work to be made up."

"Get them busy then, will you, Garth? It's decent of you to save all
you could for me, but hang it, don't mind putting on a new man when we
need him. The boys have had enough sleep by now and I've sort of
slipped out of the routine of the work. Will you go ahead and run the
outfit for me until I get back into it? It would be a big favour to
me."

Conway swung about toward the door eagerly, and so swiftly that Shandon
did not see the light that sprang up in his eyes.

"Glad to," he called back as he went out. "Take your time about
getting back into the traces, Wayne."

"Good old Garth," Shandon muttered with deep satisfaction. And then he
turned his attention again to the biscuits and bacon.

Garth went immediately to the bunk house. He found the men all asleep;
he left them all wide awake.

"Tony," he cried sharply, "come alive there and get the boys some
breakfast. You men know that Mr. Shandon is back, don't you? Do you
want him to think that this is the way we've been attending to his
business for him while he was gone? Bill, get a couple of horses
saddled while Harris is getting breakfast for you, and as soon as you
eat report at the house with them. You are to help find Lightfoot."

The boys scrambled out of their bunks, and Tony Harris in picturesque
night raiment was thrusting paper and kindling into his stove before
Garth had gone ten steps from the door he had slammed behind him. Did
they want Wayne Shandon to think that they had neglected his interests
in his absence? Not by a jug full, growled Big Bill. And he wasn't
the kind to think it in the first place or to care in the second, he
grunted as he jerked on his overalls and shoved his big feet into his
shoes. Mister Shandon! Huh!

But they took their cue from Conway's sharp words and did not wait for
breakfast to get ready for the day's work. Big Bill was the first in
the corral but the others came trooping after him, roping their horses,
saddling and bringing them to the bunk house door to be mounted swiftly
as soon as the morning meal could be finished. And, as usual little
Andy Jennings saddled an extra horse, a graceful, cat-footed mare,
cream coloured, with white mane and tail, for Garth Conway.

There were few words spoken in the bunk house as the men made their
hurried meal. Steve Dunham demanded to be told if Red was going to let
Conway "run things" for him, or if he was going to be his own foreman