“Mebbe they can an’ mebbe they can’t,” broke in Jimmie Welsh, his little, bright eyes twinkling with suppressed merriment. “I should think the hull outfit, cook-wagons, an’ all, could make the visit to the Bar T.”
“Yeah?” remarked Sims politely scornful but inquisitive. “Tell us about it.”
And Welsh did.
CHAPTER XIV
SENTENCED
Everybody at the Bar T ranch house was laboring under suppressed excitement. It was now the middle of June when the yearly round-up should be under way, yet, owing to the invasion of the sheep and the recent rustler troubles, the cowboys had not been free to undertake this task.
On other ranches this spring work was well advanced, and the fact that the Bar T had not yet begun was a source of constant worry to Bissell and Stelton. The former, when he had sent out his call for other cowmen of the region, had encountered great difficulty in getting his neighbors to give up their time to the disposal of Bud Larkin’s case.
At last, however, ten owners, impatient at the summons and anxious to return as quickly as possible to their work, had ridden in, some of them alone and others with a cowboy taken from the round-up. 162