"Whenever you can spare the time you will find your supper ready," she
announced, coldly, and without waiting for a reply, turned toward the
camp. Endicott looked at Tex, and Tex looked at Endicott.

"Seems like you done raised hell again, Win. Standin' around listenin'
to ribald songs, like you done, ain't helped our case none. Well, we
better go eat it before she throws it away. Come on, Bat, you're
included in the general gloom. Your face looks like a last year's
circus bill, Win, with them patches of paper hangin' to it. Maybe
that's what riled her. If I thought it was I'd yank 'em off an' let
them cuts bleed no matter how bad they stung, just to show her my
heart's in the right place. But that might not suit, neither, so there
you are."

Alice sat well back from the fire as the three men poured their coffee
and helped themselves to the food.

"Ain't you goin' to join us in this here repast?" asked Tex, with a
smile.

"I have eaten, thank you."

"You're welcome--like eight dollars change for a five-spot."

In vain Endicott signalled the cowboy to keep silent. "Shove over,
Win, you're proddin' me in the ribs with your elbow! Ain't Choteau
County big enough to eat in without crowdin'? 'Tain't as big as Tom
Green County, at that, no more'n Montana is as big as Texas--nor as
good, either; not but what the rest of the United States has got
somethin' to be said in its favour, though. But comparisons are
ordorous, as the Dutchman said about the cheese. Come on, Win, me an'
you'll just wash up these dishes so Bat can pack 'em while we saddle
up."

A half-hour later, just as the moon topped the crest of a high ridge,
the four mounted and made their way down into the valley.

"We got to go kind of easy for a few miles 'cause I shouldn't wonder if
old man Johnson had got a gang out interrin' defunck bovines. I'll
just scout out ahead an' see if I can locate their camp so we can slip
past without incurrin' notoriety."

"I should think," said Alice, with more than a trace of acid in her
tone, "that you had done quite enough scouting for one day."

"In which case," smiled the unabashed Texan, "I'll delegate the duty to
my trustworthy retainer an' side-kicker, the ubiquitous an' iniquitous
Baterino St. Cecelia Julius Caesar Napoleon Lajune. Here, Bat, fork
over that pack-horse an' take a siyou out ahead, keepin' a lookout for
posses, post holes, and grave-diggers. It's up to you to see that we
pass