ony blinked in dejected slumber; and all the while, the three
dogs followed them and barked and yapped and growled, until Pink turned
in the saddle with the plain intention of stopping the clamor with a
bullet or two.

"Ye better let 'em alone!" Applehead warned sharply, and Pink put up his
gun unfired and took down his rope.

"The darned things are getting on my nerves!" he complained, and wheeled
suddenly in pursuit of the meanest-looking dog of the three. "I can
stand a decent dog barking at me, but so help me Josephine, I draw the
line at Injun curs!"

The dog ran yelping toward the hogans with Pink hard at its heels
swinging his loop menacingly. When the dog, with a last hysterical yelp,
suddenly flattened its body and wriggled under a corner of the shed,
Pink turned and rode after the others, who had passed the corral and
were heading for the upper and of a small patch of green stuff that
looked like a half-hearted attempt at a vegetable garden. As he passed
the shed an Indian in dirty overalls and gingham shirt craned his neck
around the doorway and watched him malevolently; but Pink, sighting the
green patch and remembering their dire need of water, was kicking
his horse into a trot and never once thought to cast an eye over his
shoulder.

In that arid land, where was green vegetation you may be sure there was
water also. And presently the nine were distributed along a rod or
two of irrigating ditch, thankfully watching the swallows of water go
sliding hurriedly down the outstretched gullets of their horses that
leaned forward with half-bent, trembling knees, fetlock deep in the wet
sand of the ditch-banks.

"Drink, you sons-uh-guns, drink!" Weary exclaimed jubilantly, "you've
sure got it coming--and mama, how I do hate to see a good horse
suffering for a feed or water, or shelter from a storm!"

They pulled them away before they were satisfied, and led them back to
where green grass was growing. There they pulled the saddles off and let
the poor brutes feed while they unpacked food for themselves.

"It'll pay in the long run," said Luck, "to give them an hour here. I'll
pay the Injuns for what grass they eat. Ramon must have stopped here
yesterday. I'm going up and see if I can't pry a little information
loose from those squaws and papooses. Come on, Applehead--you can talk a
little Navvy; you come and tell 'em what I want."

Applehead hesitated, and with a very good reason. He might, for all he
knew,