ms he went into camp last night, and
like to scared the ladies into fits. He ain't got enough clothes on to
flag an antelope, according to them, and he's about seven feet high,
and looks more like a missing link than a plain, ordinary man. The one
that didn't faint away got the best look at him, and she's ready to
take oath he ain't more'n half human. They kept fires burning all
night to scare him out uh the coulee, and they're going to break camp
to-day and hike for home. They say he give a screech that'd put a
crimp in the devil himself, and went galloping off, jumping about
twenty feet at a lick. And--"

"Aw, gwan!" protested Happy Jack, feebly.

"So help me Josephine, it's the truth," abetted Pink, round-eyed and
unmistakably in earnest. "We wouldn't uh taken much stock in it,
either, only we saw him ourselves, not more than two hundred yards
off. He was just over the hill from the coulee where they were camped,
so it's bound to be the same animal. It's a fact, he didn't have much
covering--just something hung over his shoulders. And he was sure
wild, for soon as he seen us he humped himself and got into the brush.
We could hear him go crashing away like a whole bunch of elephants.
It's a damn' shame he got away on us," Pink sighed regretfully. "We
was going to rope him and put him in a cage; we could sure uh made
money on him, at two bits a look."

Happy Jack continued to eye the three distrustfully. Too often had he
been the victim of their humor for him now to believe implicitly in
their ignorance. It was too good to be real, it seemed to him. Still,
if by any good luck it _were_ real, he hated to think what would
happen if they ever found out the truth. He eased the clothing
cautiously away from his smarting back, and stared hard into a coulee.

"It was likely some sheepherder gone clean nutty," mused Irish.

"Well, the most uh them wouldn't have far to go," ventured Happy Jack,
thinking of the Swede.

"What we ought to do," said Pink, keen for the chase, "is for the
whole bunch of us to come down here and round him up. Wonder if we
couldn't talk Chip into laying off for a day or so; there's no herd to
hold. I sure would like to get a good look at him."

"Somebody ought to take him in," observed Irish longingly. "He ain't
safe, running around loose like that. There's no telling what he might
do. The way them campers read his brand, he's plumb dangerous to meet
up with alone. It's lucky you didn't run ont