se: "Where'd you drop down
from?"

This was to let the old gentleman down easy--lost people having a way
of waxing indignant at their rescuers--and the judge was not slow to
take advantage of it.

"Why, howdy do, Rufus!" he exclaimed, sinking down upon a rock. "I was
just taking a little short cut to camp. My, my, but this is a rough
country. Out looking for cattle?"

"Well--yes," responded Hardy. "I was taking a little ride. But say,
it's about my supper time. You better give up that short-cut idea and
come along home with me."

"We-ell," said the judge, reluctantly descending the butte, "I guess I
will. How far is it?"

"About two miles, by trail."

"Two miles!" exclaimed Judge Ware, aghast. "Why, it's just over that
little hill, there. Why don't you take a short cut?"

"The trail is the shortest cut I know," replied Hardy, concealing a
smile. "That's the way the cattle go, and they seem to know their
business. How does the country look to you?"

But the old judge was not to be led aside by persiflage--he was
interested in the matter of trails.

"Cattle trails!" he exclaimed. "Do you mean to say that you do all
your travelling on these crooked cow paths? Why, it is a matter of
scientific observation that even on the open prairie a cow path loses
nearly a quarter of its headway by constant winding in and out, merely
to avoid frail bushes and infinitesimal stones. Now if you and Jeff
would spend a little of your leisure in cutting trails, as they do in
forestry, you would more than save yourselves the time and labor
involved, I'm sure."

"Yes?" said Hardy coldly. There was a subtle tone of fault-finding in
his employer's voice which already augured ill for their debate on the
sheep question, and his nerves responded instinctively to the jab.
Fate had not been so kind to him that day, that he was prepared to
take very much from any man, and so he remained quiet and let the
judge go the whole length.

"Why, yes, if you would stay about the ranch a little closer instead
of going off on these armed forays against sheep--now just for
example, how much would it cost to clear a passable trail over that
ridge to the ranch?"

He pointed at the hill which in his misguided enthusiasm he had been
mounting, and Hardy's eyes glittered wickedly as he launched his
barbed jest.

"About a billion dollars, I guess," he answered, after mature
consideration.

"A billion dollars!" repeated the judge. "A billion dollars!