"Nothing will be in shape for anything," Old Heck broke in, getting up from the table, "unless we move around and get things ready to begin the beef round-up to-morrow morning. Some of you boys will have to bring in those saddle horses from across the river. Each one of you can ride your regular 'string' this year"--alluding to the term used to designate the group of several horses used exclusively by each individual rider working on a round-up. "Skinny won't be with you, but you'd better take his horses along for extras. Parker can be getting the grub-wagon in shape--I reckon you'll have to work Old Tom and Baldy on it. Sing Pete ought to be able to handle them."

"Where do we start in?" Charley asked as they went toward the barn.

"Over in the Battle Ridge country," Old Heck answered, "and work everything east of the big pasture first. It'll take just about a week to clean up that side--it's pretty rough riding over there. Then you can finish the west end after the Rodeo is over."

"What all you aiming to gather?" Bert queried.

"Everything above a three-year-old," Old Heck replied in a businesslike way; "pick up the dry cows, too, if they're fat enough. Prices are better than usual and I want to sell pretty close on account of that storm knocking the hay the way it did the other night. There'll be three hundred and fifty or four hundred good beef critters on the east range.

You ought to have them bunched and in the big pasture by Sat.u.r.day night.

Then, until the Rodeo is over you can all do what you darn' please--"

"I know what I'm going to do," Chuck laughed.

"What?" Bert asked.

"Draw all my wages, borrow all I can, and make a clean-up on that Y-Bar outfit on the race between the Gold Dust maverick and Thunderbolt!" he exclaimed vindictively.

"Probably there will be some of the rest of us have a little Quarter Circle KT money up on that race, too," Charley insinuated.

"I know blamed well there will be!" Old Heck added earnestly as they scattered to go about their respective employments.

It was a busy Sunday at the Quarter Circle KT. Chuck, Charley and Pedro spent the morning and most of the afternoon getting the saddle horses from across the river. Bert helped Parker and Old Heck about the ranch.

Sing Pete baked a supply of light-bread and stocked the grub-wagon with provisions. The Ramblin' Kid volunteered to "ride-line" on the big pasture and see that the Diamond Bar steers had not broken out again. He rode a sorrel colt--one that had had its "first-riding" in the circular corral the day before Carolyn June and Ophelia arrived at the Quarter Circle KT. When he came to the corner of the pasture where the bodies of the cattle, killed by lightning, lay, a flock of buzzards were tearing at the carca.s.ses. As the gorged creatures flapped heavily into the air the young broncho wheeled, and bucking frantically, jolted away from the gruesome scene. The Ramblin' Kid forced the animal to turn about and made him pa.s.s, rearing and plunging, among the skinless and already decaying forms. Before sundown the Ramblin' Kid was back at the ranch.

In the afternoon Skinny and Carolyn June went for a ride down the valley. It was her first opportunity to try the new saddle. Skinny was mounted on Old Pie Face and Carolyn June rode Browny, a dependable old cow-horse.

"Gee," Carolyn June remarked as they pa.s.sed the circular corral. "I'd like to ride the Gold Dust maverick with this outfit!"

"It would be a dandy combination," Skinny said admiringly, "but I doubt if anybody but th' Ramblin' Kid will ever be able to ride the filly. So far, she acts like she's going to be a worse one-man horse than Captain Jack is. She tried to kill me yesterday when I went into the corral!"

"What makes her that way?" Carolyn June asked.

"Blamed if I know," Skinny replied, "some horses are naturally like that. Th' Ramblin' Kid says it ain't in the horse--it's in the human. If the human don't understand the horse the horse won't trust the human and where there ain't trust there's fear and where there's fear there's hate. He's got some funny ideas!"

"Sounds sort of sensible, though, doesn't it?" Carolyn June said musingly.

"Maybe it does," Skinny retorted, "but he goes a little too far with his fool notions sometimes, it seems to me."

"How is that?" Carolyn June questioned.

"Well, for one thing," Skinny replied, "he says any man or woman a horse don't trust ain't a good man or woman for a human to depend on--says they ain't right inside! It looks to me like that's a pretty hard slam on people just because some darned idiot of a broncho won't make up with them!"

Carolyn June leaned back in the saddle and laughed.

"Some 'range philosopher'--this Ramblin' Kid person!" she exclaimed lightly. "Where did he come from and who is he, anyway?"

"n.o.body knows," Skinny answered; "he just kind of growed up, here in the Southwest. I've heard that his mother died when he was born and his father was a preacher or something doing missionary work--I reckon that's what you'd call it--among the Mexicans and Indians and got the smallpox while he was nursing them through an epidemic and it killed him, which left th' Ramblin' Kid an orphan when he wasn't much more than a baby. The Mexicans or Indians took care of him till he was old enough to ride and then he began to ramble around and has always kept it up just as if he was hunting for something--"

"How interesting!" Carolyn June exclaimed, "almost like a story!"

"It is kind of unusual," Skinny continued, "of course it may not all be true, but one thing is sure--th' Ramblin' Kid seems to have some sort of fascination for the Greasers and the Indians; they all worship him, and he's a witch when it comes to handling horses!"

"He seems to be," Carolyn June commented thoughtfully.

"Yes," Skinny answered, "look how that Gold Dust maverick has made right up with him--I don't believe she ever will have anything to do with anybody else!"

Carolyn June laughed softly to herself. She did not tell Skinny of her visits to the circular corral and that the outlaw mare already had accepted her as a good friend.

She and Skinny loafed idly as far down the valley as the Narrows, and when Sing Pete sounded the supper gong they were again back at the house.

After the evening meal the cowboys hung around the house for a while until a suggestive look from Old Heck caused them reluctantly to follow him to the bunk-house, leaving Parker and Skinny with Ophelia and Carolyn June.

It was the foreman's last evening with the widow before the beef round-up. She was rather diffident and held him in safe channels of conversation. Skinny and Carolyn June sat on the porch until it was quite dark, then went into the house. She drummed carelessly and lightly on the keys of the piano--her thoughts evidently far away. Parker and Skinny left the house early. At the door the foreman whispered to the widow:

"Don't forget what I spoke about coming out from town!"

Ophelia flushed and murmured, "No, indeed, but--" she did not finish the sentence. She was about to say, "don't build false hopes!"

When Parker and Skinny entered the bunk-house Old Heck and all the cowboys except the Ramblin' Kid were asleep. He was half-reclining on his bed, smoking. At the entrance of Skinny and Parker be got up and without speaking strolled outside and through the darkness toward the circular corral. The night was warm and the stuffy air of the bunk-house, together with the noisy snoring of Old Heck, made him restless. He stood a few moments looking at Captain Jack and the Gold Dust maverick. Then, moving back into the shed, dropped down and laid with his shoulders and head on his saddle, which was thrown on the ground under the shelter. The side of the building, next to the corral, was open and the Ramblin' Kid could see, from where he was lying, the dark bulks of the two horses at the farther side of the corral.

Ophelia went directly to bed after Skinny and Parker left.

Carolyn June sat for a while in the Morris chair in the large room. She seemed abstracted and in a mood for meditation. The vague history Skinny had given her of the life of the Ramblin' Kid interested her. She thought it explained a good many of his elemental impulses and idiosyncrasies. He was a creature of the plains. In his life among the Indians and Mexicans he had absorbed their stoical ways and almost brutal directness, yet, sometimes he showed a sensitiveness that was utterly impossible for Carolyn June to understand. Her thoughts turned to the Gold Dust maverick. To-morrow Ramblin' Kid would take the filly away for the round-up. She truly loved the beautiful mare. She would slip out, while the others slept, and have one more visit with the splendid creature. Rising, Carolyn June pa.s.sed out through the kitchen, stopped for a handful of sugar--she had learned where Sing Pete kept the can--and bareheaded and without a wrap walked swiftly out to the circular corral.

The Ramblin' Kid heard Carolyn June step up to the gate of the corral and from the heavy shadow in which he lay saw the light dress and instinctively recognized this late visitor to Captain Jack and the Gold Dust maverick His first impulse was to call out and warn her to keep away from the horses--that both were dangerous for men to fool with, much less was it safe for a woman to undertake familiarities with them.

His next thought was that his sudden appearance would only startle the girl and--well, cause a lot of useless talk. He remained quiet.

A low trill came from the throat of Carolyn June. The two horses stopped feeding and looked around toward the gate. The bird-like call was repeated. The Ramblin' Kid was astonished to see Captain Jack and the outlaw mare move eagerly in the direction from whence the sound had come. He heard Carolyn June talking to the bronchos in soft endearing tones. After a moment she opened the gate and stepped inside the corral.

"Well, I'll be--!" he breathed inaudibly.

For half an hour Carolyn June petted the little stallion and the Gold Dust maverick. Both animals seemed hungry for her caresses.

"Oh, you darling--you wonder!" the Ramblin' Kid Heard Carolyn June say, as she gave the maverick's head a tight squeeze just before running lightly back to the house. "I hope you beat that old Y-Bar horse so bad he'll never want to run again! Even if that Ramblin' Kid lover of yours," she added softly, "does think I'm nothing but a silly woman-thing and hates me with all his queer, lonesome heart!"

"Well, I'll be d.a.m.ned!" the Ramblin' Kid exclaimed when she was gone.

He raised himself on one elbow and lay thus for a long time silently thinking.

At last he got up, went to the corral gate, and he himself stepped inside with the horses. He gave Captain Jack's ear a loving twitch, then turned to the Gold Dust maverick. She permitted him, without protest, to fondle her head and neck. His hand lingered long on the silky mane in which, a little while before, Carolyn June had twined her fingers.

"Oh, Queen of th' Range!" he said with a low laugh, unconsciously using the poetical phrase, as he gave the warm cheek of the filly a tender parting pinch before turning away to go to the bunk-house, "we'll whip that devil-horse of th' Vermejo--we'll show that Thunderbolt runner what hearts that ain't afraid an' nimble hoofs can do!"

CHAPTER XIII