range; it was questionable if they would have been able to drag on the
two remaining days and even had they done so they would have brought no
top price from the buyer.

The drive was made on schedule time. Circumstances not only permitted
but insisted. There were no places for loitering, there were only the
major water-holes upon which Steve had counted, the distances between
them regulating each day's progress. And so the stock was in San Juan
a full two days before the time for Doan's coming.

For Steve the two days dragged heavily. He camped with his herd on the
edge of the settlement, allowing the boys to disport themselves as they
saw fit a large part of the time, himself having little desire for the
bad whiskey and crooked gaming of La Casa Blanca.

Tuesday morning Doan was to arrive. Steve met the stage and one glance
showed him that Doan was not on it. He asked the driver if he knew
anything of Doan and the man shook his head. Steve supposed that he
was coming up from the railroad by auto and so idled about the town all
forenoon, waiting.

By midday, when Doan still failed to put in an appearance, Steve had
grown impatient. By the middle of the afternoon his impatience gave
place to anger. He had kept his appointment bringing his herds over a
hard trail, and Doan with nothing to do but travel luxuriously, had
failed him.

But it was not until the stage came in Wednesday morning and again
brought no Doan and no word of Doan that Steve telephoned a message to
the nearest Western Union office at Bidwell demanding to know what the
trouble was. Not only was he on heavy expenses; his mood never had
been one to take kindly to the long waiting game. And yet he was
forced to wait all that day and all the next day with no word from Doan.

He telegraphed again Wednesday night, a third time Thursday morning.
No answers came. But a little before noon, Thursday, Doan came. Came
by automobile from the railroad, a man with him. Steve saw them as
they drove into town; he noted Doan's thin face and his tall form in
the gray linen duster; then he marked the man with him. The man was
Blenham.

Steve, raw-nerved through these long hours of inaction and uncertainty,
pushed straightway to Doan bent upon demanding an explanation. He got
an inkling of one from an unexpected quarter, Blenham's lips.

"We sure appreciate this, Mr. Doan," Blenham said, getting down and
offering his hand to the cattle-buyer. "Cou