“I declare, they look shabby,” said the foreman, standing off with his brush and giving his clothes a good looking over. “Well, I would like to see anybody who has been out here as long as I have, go there looking any better. If it were not for such fellows as me, some of them would go hungry for their beef.”
Claude came in shortly after that and began to pack his trunk. Now, that trunk was the source of a great deal of annoyance to Carl. If it had not been for that they could have gone on horseback, and thus completed their journey in half the time. As it was, they were obliged to take a wagon with them, and that would delay them just four days.
“At any rate I shall see the last of you,” soliloquized Carl, as he passed along the hall and saw Claude at work with his trunk. “I wish you had never come here. I know Thompson will be glad that you are gone.”
It must not be supposed that Carl really disliked his cousin, for he did not; but at the same time candor compelled him to say that affairs about the ranch did not move as smoothly as they did before he came there. He seemed to possess the faculty of getting the cowboys into a turmoil. Every little thing that was said out on the range went straight to his father’s ears, until Mr. Preston told him that his cowboys satisfied him, and he didn’t want to have any more stories brought to him. Thompson was the one who had the most fault to find with him. If he started him off to find certain cattle that had strayed off the range, he would perhaps find him, in an hour or two, miles away from his post, stretched out beneath the shade of a tree and taking matters easy. At such a time Thompson always gave him the full benefit of his tongue, and it seemed to be hung in the middle, so that he could keep both ends of it clattering at once.
“There is one thing that I forgot to speak to you about,” said Carl, going into Thompson’s room. “Do you suppose that father ever said a word about my taking Claude into partnership with me?”
Thompson looked at Carl, and then backed toward the nearest chair and dropped into it.
“Claude told me of that this morning,” continued Carl. “He says he don’t know what he shall do to support himself if I let him go home.”
“How much money has he got coming to him?” asked Thompson.
“Counting in the thousand, he has fifteen hundred dollars. At any rate, that is what I shall pay him.”
“He can certainly get something to do before that is gone. If he can’t, he ought to go hungry.”