Such was Scott’s introduction. It troubled him to hear the service spoken of in that way, but he knew that they did not mean it for an insult to him and tried to overlook it. The inside of the ’dobe house was as neat and clean as a pin and the ham and eggs were of the best. All in all they had a jolly time and Scott was certainly glad that he got in on it. He learned to know these people in that brief time as he could never have learned to know them in any other way.
After dinner the little cavalcade rode on to Brown’s, to Mathey’s and finally to Bronson’s. The result everywhere was the same. Distrust, incredulity, acceptance and cordiality.
When Scott signed the last permit it was four o’clock in the afternoon and he was sixteen miles from home. “Sorry I can’t stay to the party, gentlemen,” he said pleasantly, “but I am a long way from home and I have to be out on that chute early in the morning counting sheep. The whole bunch will be rushing in on us to-morrow.”
“Well, me boy,” said little Mr. Hicks speaking for them all, “you won’t be missing much, because you are the party. You have given us the first square deal we have had in several years and we came along to see you through. We’ll ride back with you whenever you are ready to go, but I want to tell you while we are all here together that we appreciate this and we are going to back you up whenever you need it. And unless I miss my guess an honest man coming into that district is going to need backing.”
Scott thanked them profusely. “Possibly some of you have had a raw deal from some individual,” he exclaimed, “but the service intends to give every man a square deal, and I am going to try to see that you all get it.”
They swept away up the valley like a crowd of care-free school-boys. Each shouted a friendly good-by as he dropped out at his home. When the last man had dropped out and Scott was riding on alone he felt as though he had left old friends. All along the cañon trail he passed by what seemed to him a countless ocean of sheep, tired out by their long day’s drive and all bedded down for the night waiting for the chance to get onto the green mountain range in the morning. Their continuous bleating had a strange, weird sound to Scott’s unaccustomed ears. It was late when he reached the cabin but he found Heth waiting supper for him.
In bed that night he thought over the strange experiences of the day. There was not another people in the world who would have done such a thing and he liked it. For some reason which he did not stop to analyze he had not told Heth anything about it.
CHAPTER VI
A FOREST FIRE
Scott was up before day the next morning and he and Heth prepared a hurried breakfast. He was quite excited. He had read volumes about the myriad sheep which were grazed in the national forests of the great Southwest and he was anxious to see them. The fact that he was now going to have an actual part in the handling of them made him impatient to get things going.