eep at
all."

"I got uneasy about the cattle," answered the hunchback, "an I've been
up there with 'em, an' it was dam' lucky. I was settin' on the Bay Eagle
in a little holler, when somebody come along an' begun to take down the
bars. I lit out for him, an' he run like a whitehead, jumped the fence
on the lower side of the road an' went splashin' through the creek, but
he left some feathers in the bushes when he jumped, an' I got 'em."

He put his hand into the bosom of his coat and drew out a leather cap.
"Christian," I cried, pointing to the seared spots on the leather.

Jud crushed the cap in his fingers. "He's got back," he said. "Was he
ridin' a horse?"

"Footin' it," answered Ump, "an' by himself. That's what makes me leary.
Them others are up to somethin' or they'd a come with him. He's had just
about time to make the trip on Shank's mare by takin' short cuts.
They've put him up to turn out the cattle an' drive 'em back while we
snoozed."

"Maybe they did come with him," said Jud, "an' they're waitin'
somewhere. It would be like 'em to come sneakin' back an' try to drive
the cattle over, an' put 'em in the river in the night, so it would look
like they had got out an' gone away themselves."

Ump's forehead wrinkled like an accordion. "That's fittin' to the size
of 'em," he said, "an' about what they're up to. But old Christian was
surely by himself, an' I don't understand that. If they'd a come with
him, I'd a seen 'em, or a heard the horses."

"I don't believe they came with him," said I.

"Why not?" said Jud.

"Because," I answered, "if they came with him they would have put
Christian on a horse, and they would have stopped here to locate us.
They could tell by looking in the stable. They'd never wait until they
got to the field. They're a foxy set, and there's something back that we
don't know."

"What could they do?" put in Jud. "There's no more ferries."

"But there's a bridge," said I.

Ump, standing stock still in the floor, stumbled like a horse struck
over the knees. Jud bolted out of the house on a dead run. We followed
him to the stable, Ump galloping like a great rabbit.

We flung open the stable door, thrust the bits into the horses' mouths,
and slapped on our saddles. It was murky, but we needed no light for
business like this. We knew every part of the horse as a man knows his
face, and we knew every strap and buckle.

Ump sat on his mare, waiting until we should be ready, kickin