"No; th' other way. So long."
"Hey!" cried Johnny anxiously, drawing rein, "Frenchy said Buck was going to put some of us up in Number Five so Frenchy an' his four could ride th' line. Did Buck say anything to you about it?"
Line house Number Five was too far from the zone of excitement, if fighting should break out along the line, to please Johnny.
"He was stringin' you, Kid," Hopalong laughed. "He won't take any of th' old outfit away from here."
"Oh, I knowed that; but I thought I'd ask, that's all," and Johnny cantered away, whistling happily.
Hopalong looked after him and smiled, for Johnny had laughed and fought and teased himself into the heart of every man of the outfit: "He's shore a good Kid; an' how he likes a fight!"
CHAPTER V
HOPALONG ASSERTS HIMSELF
Paralleling West Arroyo and two miles east of it was another arroyo, through which Hopalong was riding the day following his meeting with Mary. Coming to a place where he could look over the bank he saw a herd of H2 and Three Triangle cows grazing not far away, and Antonio was in charge of them. Hopalong did not know how long they had been in the valley, nor how they had crossed the line, but their presence was enough. It angered him, for here was open and, it appeared, authorized defiance. Not content to let his herds run as they wished, Meeker was actually sending them into the valley under guard, presumably to find out what would be done about it. The H2 foreman would find that out very soon.