ast noon when Roberts dropped into a draw where an immense man
was lying sprawled under a bush. The recumbent man was a mountain of
flesh; how he ever climbed to a saddle was a miracle; how a little
cow-pony carried him was another. Yet there was no better line-rider in
the Panhandle than Jumbo Wilkins.

"'Lo, Texas," the fat man greeted.

The young line-rider had won the nickname of "Texas" in New Mexico a
year or two before by his aggressive championship of his native State.
Somehow the sobriquet had clung to him even after his return to the
Panhandle.

"'Lo, Jumbo," returned the other. "How?"

"Fat like a match. I'm sure losin' flesh. Took up another notch in my
belt yestiddy."

Roberts shifted in the saddle, resting his weight on the horn and the
ball of one foot for ease. He was a slim, brown youth, hard as nails and
tough as whipcord. His eyes were quick and wary. In spite of the imps
of mischief that just now lighted them, one got an impression of
strength. He might or might not be, in the phrase of the country, a "bad
_hombre_," but it was safe to say he was an efficient one.

"Quick consumption, sure," pronounced the younger man promptly. "You
don't look to me like you weigh an ounce over three hundred an' fifty
pounds. Appetite kind o' gone?"

"You're damn whistlin'. I got an ailment, I tell you, Tex. This mo'nin'
I didn't eat but a few slices of bacon an' some lil' steaks an' a pan or
two o' flapjacks an' mebbe nine or ten biscuits. Afterward I felt kind
o' bloated like. I need some sa'saparilla. Now, if I could make out to
get off for a few days--"

"You could get that sarsaparilla across the bar at the Bird Cage,
couldn't you, Jumbo?" the boy grinned.

The whale of a man looked at him reproachfully. "You never seen me
shootin' up no towns or raisin' hell when I was lit up. I can take a
drink or leave it alone."

"That's right too. Nobody lets it alone more than you do when it can't
be got. I've noticed that."

"You cayn't devil me, boy. I was punchin' longhorns when yore mammy was
paddlin' you for stealin' the sugar. Say, that reminds me. I'm plumb out
o' sugar. Can you loan me some till Pedro gits around? I got to have
sugar or I begin to fall off right away," the big man whined.

The line-riders chatted casually of the topics that interest men in the
land of wide, empty frontiers. Of Indians they had something to say, of
their diminishing grub supply more. Jumbo mentioned that he had found