“Yes, because I will want to weed out the goats from the sheep pretty soon, and at that time a mistake might cost us dear. Only the faithful shall be put on guard. The ones you black-ball will get their month’s pay, and be made to walk the plank by night-time, if possible; because who knows what may happen once darkness comes along; and a traitor in the camp is worse than three open foes.”
“Right you are there, Adrian; and it tickles me to find you so clever at sizing things up.”
He busied himself with pencil and paper for several minutes; after which he handed over the list he had made out.
“You see,” Mr. Comstock presently said, as Adrian looked over the list, “we’ve got ten punchers here just now, though time was when we needed nearly twice that number; but then the herds ain’t what they used to be, what with two big hauls, and some hard luck last winter in a blizzard.”
“And you seem to have put a cross in front of just five out of the ten names; so it looks as though you couldn’t trust half your force,” the boy remarked.
“Just so, Adrian,” came the reply. “She let some of my best men go because they wouldn’t take orders from her. In time p’raps the rest of the decent ones’d have been weeded out too; they were always in hot water with the missus, and threatening to throw up their jobs, only I begged them to stand by me, or I’d quit too. You can depend on the five through thick and thin.”
“One of them is Frank Bowker, the man you sent to town, so that leaves just four on deck right now; with my three new hands that makes seven of the right sort; and then the three of us boys adds up ten, just enough to handle things if we have to.”
“And count me in with you, because I’m not
too old to throw a rope or ride the wickedest cayuse in the bunch; fact is, there’s only one thing on the face of this earth I seem to be afraid of. I won’t mention names, son, because you know what that is without my saying it.”
“Supposing now that those four rustlers made a bee line for home as soon as the one we had with us part of the way here could get back to his mates, and set them free, what do you expect would happen?” Adrian inquired.