"What are you going to do?" asked Ben.
"Drive the herd off the reservation."
"Gee, that will put us in the hole bad."
"Oh, I don't know. We'll trail them a little farther north, keep them a few months on free range, then drive them to the railroad and slide them into Chicago on a rising market. I had the whole thing figured out in case we got here too late, which I expected to do on account of our being held back by dry weather and too much water, coming in streaks."
"I'd like to have been there when you were throwing your bluff into the colonel. I suppose he had the surprise of his life."
"He looked like it. By Jove, he has a mighty pretty daughter, if he is a grouch himself."
"Seem to have an eye for beauty yourself."
"Not as keen as yours." Ben blushed when Ted said this, for Ben was always having a new girl and talking about her.
"I noticed her because she was so pleasant, and so different from her father, and that fellow Barrows, who seems to be very soft on her."
"Well, we have no fight with the ladies of the post," said Ben.