the day.

Merritt and the boy rode on entirely off the part of the forest on which
Wilbur had his patrol, to a section he did not know. They stopped once
to look over a young pine plantation. Just over a high ridge there was a
wider valley traversed by an old road which crossed the main range about
five miles west and went down into a valley where there were numerous
ranches. The principal occupation of these ranchmen was stock-raising,
on account of their long distance from a railroad which prevented them
marketing any produce. Just about July of each year these ranchmen
rounded up their stock, cut out the beef steers, and shipped them to the
markets. It was then the last week in July, and the Supervisor expected
to meet some of the herds upon the old road which crossed the mountains
further on. Just as they reached the bottom of the hill they saw the
leaders of a big herd coming down the road from the pass. In the
distance a couple of cowpunchers could be seen in front holding up the
lead of the bunch.

"I'll wait and talk," said Merritt, reining in. As perhaps he had
exchanged four whole sentences in two hours' ride, Wilbur thought to
himself that the conversation would have to be rather one-sided, but he
knew the other believed in seizing every opportunity to promote
friendliness with the people in his forest and waited their upcoming
with interest. The Supervisor had his pack-horse with him, and as the
herd drew nearer he told Wilbur to take him out of sight into the brush,
so as not to scare the steers, and tie him up safely. That done,
Wilbur rode back to the road.

By the time he had returned the two punchers had ridden up. One proved
to be the foreman of the outfit, by name Billy Grier, and the other a
Texan, whom Merritt called Tubby Rodgers, apparently because he was as
thin as a lath.

"I was a-hopin'," said Grier as he rode up, "that you-all was headin'
down the road a bit."

"I wasn't planning to," said the Forester. "Why?"

"We had a heavy storm down in the valley last night, which sort of broke
things up badly, an' I had to leave a couple of men behind."

"Don't want to hire us to drive, do you?" asked Merritt.

"Allers willin' to pay a good man," said the foreman with a grin. "Give
ye forty and chuck."

The Supervisor smiled.

"I'm supposed to be holding down a soft job," he said; "government
service."

"Soft job," snorted Grier, "they'd have to give me the bloomin' forest
afore I'd go at