d. "Surely!" he said at
last. His clear blue eyes slowly widened and became bigger. "Honest!
Didn't you know me! Is that what ailed you, Bobby? I thought you'd done
clean gone back on me; and I sure always remembered you for a friend!"

"Know you!" shouted Bob. "Why, you eternal old fool, how should I know
you?"

"You might have made a plumb good guess."

"Oh, sure!" said Bob; "easiest thing in the world. Guess that the first
shadow you see in the woods is a man you thought was in Mexico."

"Didn't you know I was here?" demanded Pollock earnestly. "Sure pop?"

"How should I know?" asked Bob again.

George Pollock's blue eyes smouldered with anger.

"I'll sure tan that promising nephew of mine!" he threatened; "I've done
sent you fifty messages by him. Didn't he never give you none of them?"

"Who; Jack?"

"That's the whelp."

Bob laughed.

"That's a joke," said he; "I've been bunking with him for a year. Nary
message!"

"I told Carroll and Martin and one or two more to tell you."

"I guess they're suspicious of any but the mountain people," said Bob.
"They're right. How could they know?"

"That's right, they couldn't," agreed George reluctantly. "But I done
told them you was my friend. And I thought you'd gone back on me sure."

"Not an inch!" cried Bob, heartily.

George kicked the logs of the fire together, filled the coffee pot at
the creek, hung it over the blaze, and squatted on his heels. Bob tossed
him a sack of tobacco which he caught.

"Thought you were bound for Mexico," hazarded Bob at length.

"I went," said Pollock shortly, "and I came back."

"Yes," said Bob after a time.

"Homesick," said Pollock; "plain homesick. Wasn't so bad that-a-way at
first. I was desp'rit. Took a job punching with a cow outfit near
Nogales. Worked myself plumb out every day, and slept hard all night,
and woke up in the morning to work myself plumb out again."

He fished a coal from the fire and deftly flipped it atop his pipe bowl.
After a dozen deep puffs, he continued:

"Never noticed the country; had nothing to do with the people. All I
knew was brands and my bosses. Did good enough cow work, I reckon. For a
fact, it was mebbe half a year before I begun to look around. That
country is worse than over Panamit way. There's no trees; there's no
water; there's no green grass; there's no folks; there's no nothin'! The
mountains look like they're made of paper. After about a half year, as I
said, I took no