“He’ll go back and take some more when he gets through counting ours to-morrow,” the herder laughed.
Dugan rode through the gate and over to one side of the fence. “Drive them in now, boys,” he called. “I saw Dawson this afternoon and he said he would have Mr. Ramsey up for the recount so that we could rub it into the greenhorn right. He won’t last long after that.”
Scott smiled when he thought what a jar their plans for his disgrace were going to get. Then his forehead wrinkled in wonder. If Dugan had seen Dawson this afternoon as he said, it must have been Dawson’s horse which he tracked from the chute over to the ridge. It looked as though the ranger must know what was going on.
Dugan had started to ride away when one of the herders called after him, “Has Jed seen Dawson yet about that reservoir?”
“No,” Dugan shouted back, “but Dawson promised to ’phone me to-night and say where he would meet him.” Dugan rode rapidly away toward the chute and the herders prepared to pack the sheep into the enclosure.
Scott watched the proceedings with interest. It was his business to learn as much as possible about handling sheep and this looked like a good opportunity. Moreover he could not get out of there now without being seen and secrecy had become important.
One of the herders walked out to the sheep, picked out an old bellwether and led her quietly down toward the cañon. Scott had expected a great deal of excitement, but the old sheep walked along peaceably enough and all the others streamed along behind. The leader once inside the others crowded eagerly to get through. One of the herders stood beside the gate and made a rough estimate as they rushed past.
In half an hour the cañon was filled with a seething mass of nearly three thousand sheep. The brush gate was dropped into place and the cache was complete. Dugan had over-estimated the size of the cañon. They were packed in so tightly that some of them were forced far down into the neck of the cañon within twenty feet of the valley below. The herders had taken the precaution to block that narrow opening with a pile of brush but the sheep seemed to know that it was there and instinctively crowded away from it.
The excessive crowding and the excitement of the sheep outside that could not get through the gate made those inside nervous. They milled around restlessly, crowding now in this direction and now in that. It seemed to Scott that some of them must inevitably be trampled to death. There was a perfect bedlam of noises.
At last the herders with the aid of the dogs finally succeeded in driving those outside the fence away and the excitement subsided a little. Fortunately the bands were headed east along the open bench and did not go back into the timber where they would have seen Jed. One of the herders stayed behind to see how the prisoners would behave.