The Uphill Climb

n of the D

e last ounce of disgust with life slid from his mind when he heard the greeting, and he turned and gripped hard the gloved hand thrust toward him. Ches Mason it was-the same old Ches, with the same humorous wrinkles around his eyes and mouth, the same kindliness, the same hearty faith in the

ook just like you always did-with your hat on." In the West, not to say in every other locality, ther

temples. "You see what it's done to me," he pointed out lugubriously. "You ain't married yourself, I suppose? Yo

ied to see how much of the real stuff I could get outside of, and then how many I could lick."

the temperance dope," he said hesitatingly. "I reckon you'll want to bunk down with t

n get within gunshot of me; not if I see her coming in time!" Tho

knows you're here and won't come to the house, though," he considered uneasily. "She's kept a big package of gratitude tucked away with your name

"I kinda remember eating, some time in t

r getting soused and trying to clean out the camp, and I nabbed him before they had time to forgive him. Way they had of disciplining him-when he'd go on a big tear they'd fire him for a few days and then take him back. But they can't git him now-not if I can help it. A better cook never throwed dis

." Ford's tone was re

ll under your belt," Mason retort

dn't stay for the dedication services. Sunset was getting all fussed up over me and I thought I'd give them a chance to settle

lie. I meant to write, but-you know how a man gets to putting things off. And then I took a notion to ride o

nd prejudices-and she don't know all your little personal traits. She's heard a lot about you, of course. We was married right after we

rd put in modestly, al

I don't know how to square your record with that face! Unless we can rig up some yarn about

I won't stay long, and I'll stop down here with the boys. Call me Jack Jones and let it go at that. Honest, Ches, I don

over "Kate's" opinion of him. He was hungry. And since it is next to impossible to whip up the conscience of a man whose thoughts are concentrated upon his physical needs, Mason was wise enough

ke eloquently of his twenty-four hours of fasting and ex

ards. There was the maturity which the man of thirty possessed and which the virile young fellow of twenty-one had lacked. There was the same straight glance, the same atmosphere of squa

on the death of his father and going almost as suddenly as it had come. That, at least, had been the rumor. Also he had heard, just lately, that Ford had taken to gambling as a profession and to terrorizing Sunset periodically as a pastime. And Mason remembered the Ford Campbell who had carried him on his back out of a wild place in Alaska, and had nearly starved himself t

of the Double Cross, and he was not quite so sodden as Mason had feared to find him-provided he f

hing, not more than half convinced and inclined toward resentfulness. That a "booze-fighter" like Ford Campbell should come only a day's ride from town and not be fairly well supplied w

al belongings of the men, and closed the door so that they might talk in confidence without fear of Mose's loose tongue. Ford immediately pul

o come out here and take charge? Eight years is a long time to expect a man to stay right w

ice." Mason grinned and would not hel

lf wide open like that. Why, it's plumb crazy to offer a job like that to a fellow you haven't seen for as long as you have me. And if you heard anything about me

got out his pipe and began to fill it as calmly and with as much attention to the small details as if he were not mentall

in his astonishment. "Well, you da

or five years, didn't you? Nelson told me you were his top hand while y

o his eyes. "I know the cow-business, far as that goes. It's me; you can't-why, Lordy me! You ought to be

un, and a good one!'" assisted Mason equably. "'The

-smoked cigarette savagely at the hearth of the rusty box-stove, and scowled at the pla

d tobacco into his pipe. "No reason at all, one way or the other. I need a foreman-one I can depend on.

ip. "That," he said more calmly, "is just what I'm drivi

dicted blandly. "It's just be

d take his wife back East to her mother. She was sick. I didn't want the darned ranch. And so help me, Ches, that's the only thing I've done in the last four years that I hadn't ought to be ashamed of. The rest of the money I just simply blew. I-well, you see me; you didn't want to take me up to the house to meet your wife, and I don't blame you. You'd be a chump if you did. And this is nothing out of the ordinary. I've got my face bunged up half th

ered. We're a little late this year, on account of old Slow dying right in round-up time. We got most of the beef shipped-all I care about gathering, this fall. I've got most a

ant the job." Ford's

an. It don't make any difference to me how many times he played hookey when he was a kid, or how many men he's licked since he growed up. I've hired him to help run the Double Cross, and run it right; and I ain't a bit afraid but what he'll make good." He smiled and knocked the ashes gently from his pipe into the palm of

working a little bunch we threw in yesterday. To-morrow we can ride around a little, and kinda get the lay of the land. You be

ce upon his folded arms, alive to the finger-tips; alive and fighting. For there are times when the soul of a man awakes and demands a reck