ose what seemed to him the gorge which the boys would be most
likely to follow--especially at night and if they were in open pursuit
of those who had driven the cattle off the benchland; and that the
cattle had been driven beyond this point was plain enough, for otherwise
he would have overtaken stragglers long before this.

It was nearing noon when he came out finally upon a little, open flat
and found there Big Medicine and Pink holding a bunch of perhaps a
hundred cattle which they had gleaned from the surrounding gulches and
little "draws" which led into the hills. The two were wet to the skin,
and they were chilled and hungry and as miserable as a she-bear sent up
a tree by yelping, yapping dogs.

Big Medicine it was who spied him first through the haze of falling
water, and galloped heavily toward him, his horse flinging off great
pads of mud from his feet as he came.

"Say!" he bellowed when he was yet a hundred yards away. "Got any grub
with yuh?"

"No!" Irish called back.

"Y'AIN'T" Big Medicine's voice was charged with incredulous reproach.
"What'n hell yuh doin' here without GRUB? Is Patsy comin' with the
wagon?"

"No. I sent Patsy on in to town after--"

"Town? And us out here--" Big Medicine choked over his wrongs.

Irish waited until he could get in a word and then started to explain.
But Pink rode up with his hatbrim flapping soggily against one dripping
cheek when the wind caught it, and his coat buttoned wherever there were
buttons, and his collar turned up, and looking pinched and draggled and
wholly miserable.

"Say! Got anything to eat?" he shouted when he came near, his voice
eager and hopeful.

"No!" snapped Irish with the sting of Big Medicine's vituperations
rankling fresh in his soul.

"Well why ain't yuh? Where's Patsy?" Pink came closer and eyed the
newcomer truculently.

"How'n hell do I know?" Irish was getting a temper to match their own.

"Well, why don't yuh know? What do yuh think you're out here for? To
tell us you think it's going to rain? If we was all of us like you,
there'd be nothing to it for the nester-bunch. It's a wonder you come
alive enough to ride out this way at all! I don't reckon you've even got
anything to drink!" Pink paused a second, saw no move toward producing
anything wet and cheering, and swore disgustedly. "Of course not! You
needed it all yourself! So help me Josephine, if I was as low-down
ornery as some I could name I'd tie myself to a mule's t