"Well, good for you, Brig!" commented Dixie May, smiling with sudden approval; and at that the other suitors fell into a black rage of jealousy and distrust. There was silence for a while, and then Happy Jack spoke up.
"Mr. Lee," he said, "I know I was drunk last night—my own fault, of course—but here's the proposition. You got to take on somebody to do yore work; what's the use of hirin' these town bums when you can git yore old hands back? That's the way we stand, and I hope you'll give us a chance."
This was a long speech for Jack, and he wiped the sweat from his brow as he waited for the answer. The rest of the unemployed rumbled their acquiescence to the statement and watched for some sign of weakening; but Henry Lee did not change his frown.
"I'm looking for men I can trust," he said at last. "These boys here stayed in camp and were on hand to help with the shipping. Maybe some of them ain't quite as good cowboys as you are, but I can depend on them not to turn my remuda loose the first night I leave 'em alone, and I'm going to make them top hands. You fellows get the top mounts and forty-five a month," he added, glancing briefly at Brig and the faithful few, most of whom were nesters boys, and married men working for a stake; "and I want some more just like you."
"But how about us?" inquired Happy Jack after a silence. "I'll take on for a green hand, myse'f—forty dollars—and ride bronks, too. And I know that upper range like a book!"
"Sure!" murmured the rest; and once more they waited on Henry Lee.
He sat for a while studying on the matter, and then he exchanged glances with his daughter.
"If he takes you back, are you going to run it over these other hands and make a lot of trouble?" she inquired shrewdly. "Because if you are——"
A chorus of indignant denials answered this unjust accusation, and Dixie Lee's face became clear.
"Then I'd take 'em back," she said.