n one would travel--he came near running plump into
three riders, who were Irish Mallory, and Weary, and Pink. They were
riding down from the direction of the camp where were the women, and
they caught sight of him immediately and gave chase. Happy Jack had no
mind to be rounded up by that trio; he dodged into the bushes, and
though they dug long, unmerciful scratches in his person, clung to the
shelter they gave and made off at top speed. He could hear the others
shouting at one another as they galloped here and there trying to
locate him, and he skulked where the bushes were deepest, like a
criminal in fear of lynching.

Luck, for once, was with him, and he got out into another
brush-fringed coulee without being seen, and felt himself, for the
present, safe from that portion of the Happy Family. Thereafter he
avoided religiously the higher ridges, and kept the direction more by
instinct than by actual knowledge. The sun grew hot again and he
hurried on, shifting the sheepskin as the need impressed.

When at last he sighted again the sheep, they were very close. Happy
Jack grew cautious; he crept down upon the unsuspecting herder as
stealthily as an animal hunting its breakfast. Herders sometimes carry
guns--and the experience of last night burned hot in his memory.

Slipping warily from rock to rock, he was within a dozen feet, when a
dog barked and betrayed his presence. The herder did not have a gun.
He gave a yell of pure terror and started for camp after his weapon.
Happy Jack, yelling also, with long leaps followed after. Twice the
herder looked over his shoulder at the weird figure in gray hat and
flapping sheepskin, and immediately after each glance his pace
increased perceptibly. Still Happy Jack, desperate beyond measure,
doggedly pursued, and his long legs lessened at each jump the distance
between. From a spectacular viewpoint, it must have been a pretty
race.

The herder, with a gasp, dove into the tent; into the tent Happy Jack
dove after him--and none too soon. The hand of the herder had almost
clasped his rifle when the weight of Happy bore him shrieking to the
earthen floor.

"Aw, yuh locoed old fool, shut up, can't yuh, a minute?" Happy Jack,
with his fingers pressed against the windpipe of the other, had the
satisfaction of seeing his request granted at once. The shrieks died
to mere gurgling. "What I want uh _you_," Happy went on crossly,
"ain't your lifeblood, yuh dam' Swede idiot. I want som