Before dawn the following morning, Allen aroused them, and they saddled their horses and, after eating a hasty breakfast, took the trail. They traveled almost due east. On their left was the Hard Pan country, and on the right the barren stretches that led to the Nations. Just as the first light touched the distant hills, Allen stopped and pointed to the sheer bluffs that marked the boundaries of the Hard Pan country.
“Yuh know, I bet I traveled a thousan’ mile tryin’ to find a trail through the darn Hard Pan. But I didn’t have no luck, ’cause there ain’t none. So I circles aroun’ here an’ tries the back door, an’ fin’s how they get in. Yuh see them trees along the base of that bluff? That’s where they goes through,” he explained.
The men stared at the trees and shook their heads. It seemed as if the bluff continued on in an unbroken line behind the trees. But one among them exclaimed in wonder, for the bluff was cut by a smooth slide that reached clear to the top.
“Shucks, a million cows has come by here,” Snoots cried out, and pointed to the chips that carpeted the ground.
Acting as an advance guard, the Allen twins pushed on up the slide; the others followed a hundred yards behind. At the crest, the trail again dipped sharply and wound its way between the familiar buttes, which slowly flattened out. Presently, the twins dismounted and waited for the others to arrive.
“Jack, suppose yuh take Toothpick an’ sorta circle to the left, an’ I’ll wander to the right an’ see if they has a guard set. Snoots, yuh come with me.”
Snoots hastily swung from his horse and, after thumbing his nose at those who were to be left behind, followed Allen through the brush along the slope to the right. Then, suddenly, Snoots drew his breath and swore softly to himself, for there before them lay a long, wide valley in the very center of the Hard Pan, and there were hundreds of cows in sight, contentedly munching on the heavy grass.
“If that ain’t a rustler’s paradise, I hope I never see one,” he whispered.
Allen silenced him with a gesture and pointed to a man about fifty feet below them to their right.
“A guard,” he breathed.