"Oh, Mr. Merritt," cried the boy, "I thought you were dead."
"Cheerful greeting, that," answered the Forester. "No, I'm not dead. You look nearer it than I do."
"But didn't you get run down?"
"Do I look as if I'd been a sidewalk for a thousand steers?" was the disgusted reply. "Don't ask silly questions, Loyle."
But the foreman broke in:
"The boy's right enough to ask," he said; "an' there's no reason why you shouldn't tell. How did you dodge the steers?"
"That was easy enough," said Merritt. "I held on to Baldy until I saw a crack in the rock big enough to hold a man. Then I let go and crawled into that until the herd passed by."
The boy breathed a sigh of relief.
"I sure thought you were gone," he said.
The Supervisor scanned him keenly, then slapped Kit heartily on the flank.