Early the next morning when Fred went to the store he found some four or five cowboys who had just arrived, having come in to put in applications for employment as cowboys.
Said a big, brawny fellow, who measured six feet and two inches in height:
"Mr. Fearnot, we hear that you have added a thousand more cattle to your herd, and we know that you need more cowboys. We are all trained ranchmen and cowboys, and understand the business from A to Z. Just set us to work at once, and there'll be no more cattle thieving around here, for we know just how to deal with them."
Fred did not like the looks of any one in the party. Their faces showed plainly that they were certainly devotees of the jug, so he said:
"Gentlemen, of course we will need more cowboys, for it is our intention to add still another thousand head of cattle to our herd; but we really can't employ another man until we first investigate his former life. We don't want any man in our employ who drinks whisky. Neither Mr. Olcott nor myself ever touch the stuff, and I never took a drink of anything intoxicating in my life, so I don't want any one around me who does."
"Well," said the big fellow, "I never was drunk in my life, I have taken whisky moderately whenever I felt like it ever since I was of age, so if you give me a job I'll agree never to take a drink as long as I am on the place."
But Fred could see from his eyes and face that the man was not telling the truth.
He said that if Fred would write to certain ranchmen further up the road where he had worked that he would find out that he was as good a ranchman as could be found anywhere in the State; but Fred shook his head and remarked that he would take his time, and that he and Olcott would act as cowboys themselves until they had selected others to do the work for them.
About three hours later a cowboy arrived in the conductor's cab, on the rear end of a freight train, and going to the little store, inquired for Fearnot.
There were four cowboys in the store at the time, and they could see from his dress and style that the newcomer was a cowboy, too.