"It'll be the devil's own job for sure! It'll take twenty men to move 'em and if we don't lose half we'll be lucky.
"If that old cuss 'uld let 'em water once it'd be a cinch, but he's a bad hombre; he won't. There's something back of this, Reverend."
Beal scratched his chin and blinked and looked across to where Cole sat. One of his Mexicans also was armed and had taken up his position further down the fence.
"So it would appear," he replied. "As Joshua said to Moses, 'There's a noise of war in the camp.'
"I see a relationship between the smiting of my beloved brother and the refusal of this outfit to grant water.
"Oh, another watcher!"
He indicated Pat Webb who evidently had gained the Cole ranch by a circuitous route and had taken up his position within the fence, armed with a rifle.
Night came on with a dry wind in the trees on the heights. Its draft did not reach the Hole but the sound did and that uneasy, distant roar served to intensify the distress of the cattle.
Beds were made on a knoll not far from the bunched steers and the Reverend was the first to rest, while the others, singing, whistling, slapping chaps with quirts rode round and round the herd keeping them away from the fence to give the riflemen no opportunity to shoot. Azariah did not sleep but rolled uneasily on his tarp watching the bright, dry stars, muttering to himself now and then.
Once he got up and fussed about his blankets and Curtis, riding by, stopped.