A Man Four-Square

Jimmie-Go

on cold rations and slept in his blanket without the comfort of glowing pi?on knots. For yesterday h

the butte. His trained eyes searched the plains. A big bunch of antelope was t

t toward the sunrise horizon and rested upon a cloud of dust. That probably meant a big herd of cattle crossing to the Pecos Valley on the Chisum Trail tha

the saddle. "Looks like they'll throw off to-night close to the 'Pache camp. If they do hel

efore, crossed into Mexico, gone plundering down the Pecos, and was now heading back toward the Staked Pla

, and was off. In the way he cut across the desert toward the moving herd was the certainty of the frontiersman. He did not hurry, but he wasted no time. H

im none but an expert trailer would have understood its significance. Yet certain facts were printed here on the desert for this boy as plainly as if they had been stenciled on a guide-post. He knew that within forty-eight hours a ba

cloud of dust and the bawling of the cattle. His course across country h

s weight on the saddle to rest h

kid, or just ridin'

or a jaunt so's he won't ge

eyed the cowpony. The horse had been r

gaunted,"

he won't throw a sha

smart distan

one sa

ou headi

your dust an' dropped over to tell you that a bi

d at him keenly. "H

smoke an' cut

njuns,

h Al Sieber 'm

. He was the ablest scout in the United States Army. Through his skill and energy

se 'Paches liable to

ion an' they have been across the line stealin' horses an' murderin' sett

n' see old man Webb about

the boy hesitated. "C

given him that name if to-day had not happened to be the fifth day of the week. But it was all one to the cowpunch

id, pulling a tobacco pouch from his hip pocket. "

man riding second on th

in

ooking young fel

boy says there's heap many Injuns on the war-path right ahead of us. I reckon I'l

Army and won a commission by intelligence and courage. Wherever the name of Homer Webb wa

men being absent with the Southern army. They had multiplied prodigiously, so that many thousands of mavericks roamed without brand, the property of any one who would round them up and put an iron on their flanks. The money value of them was very little. A

of the herd. He was a hard-faced citizen known as Joe Yankie. When Wrayburn had finis

off the reservation an' they're always just goin' to ru

f you'll ride out with me

was a slender, smooth-faced youth with mild blue eyes. It occurred to Webb, too, that the stranger might have imagined the Apaches. But in his motions was something o

from?" aske

San Carl

n named Micky F

time when we were followin' Chiricahua 'Paches. He

ribe

one eye; a buck punched the other out when he w

bea

little re

his mind swiftly. "The boy's all rig

" The foreman turned insolently to the newc

behind narrowed lid

" he drawled in a soft voic

last thing in the world he had expected was to have his bad temper resented so promptly by this s

ow me lad. I'm liable to muss up your hair. Me,

p was the home of desperadoes and man-killers. The refuse of the country, driven out by the law of more settled communi

y there?" he asked

ome away. This girl-faced boy was the only person who had asked for a bill of particulars. Moreover, the foreman did not know

when I'm holdin' it, ki

ble to get

le not to," lisped the y

he saddle, wary as a rattlesnake ready to strike. A sawed-off shotgun lay under his leg within reach of his hand, the butt of a six-gun

there was still time to draw back if he chose. He was not ex

I don't have to rob the cradle to fill my private grav

er all. He had had his own reasons for not interfering soone

e. "Ride forward an' swing the herd toward that big red but

ed to go. He had to save his face from a public back-d

ht, Joe," his em

urn, ex-Confederate trooper, slapped his hand

I ever saw Joe take water, but he shorely did splash some this here

eman brought up with a sharp turn, but in the i

h Joe, I'd like to know? This snortin' an'

y. "I ain't had any trouble with him, because he spends a heap of time letti

ed the subject and

t a

bbe

abe the ways of the 'Paches I ca

you pa

y a m

hired

of the boys to ride with you

rince," decided the

now Bi

-day. But I like his loo

right

fer. He claimed to have cut Indian sign and to know exactly what was written there. At a single glance he had sized up Prince and knew him for a

idual was a force only so far as his personality impressed itself upon his fe

when one was looking for trouble? Webb could not be sure yet, though he m