"We can wipe that difficulty off the slate, old topper," was the sergeant's quick return. "If you get careless with your mount after we've driven these horses back to the main band, you'll have to walk home, won't you? Can't catch a range horse without a rope, and yours will be carried away on your saddle. It's fifteen miles across the range to the home ranch, and traveling on shank's mare you can't possibly cover the distance in time to do any effective warning that'll bother me."
"I begin to see," said O'Hara without elation, and the cause of his gloom easily may be surmised by any one who knows why the average puncher's legs are more or less bowed.
Childress started to saddle Silver, entirely confident that Duncan O'Hara could be trusted to liquidate his debt along the lines he had laid down. More than once were his heart throbs of satisfaction at the opportunity thus presented to foil the trick of one who meant more to him than a rival for any woman's hand.
CHAPTER XVII.
CALLING A BLUFF.
Riding together as they crossed the range in the early morning, Maj. Ivan MacDonald and Thomas Fitzrapp conversed with sobered faces and in a tone that did not carry back to Darned Cuss, who brought up the rear, as became his subdued nature and the rôle of witness, which had been assigned to him. All three were well mounted and all armed for serious business, which their visit to the Open A Ranch promised to be.
"Lord Harry, Major, but won't it be a relief to be freed of this rustler pest?" Fitzrapp was saying as they drew near to the gap which served as the entrance to Childress' ranch.
"Time enough to congratulate ourselves when we've turned the trick, Thomas," said MacDonald, stroking his close-cropped beard. "I've been disappointed so many times that this discovery of O'Hara's seems too good to be true. By the way, the buster didn't come in during the night, did he?"
"Wasn't expected to unless the situation in the basin underwent a change. If this morning's work results as I expect it to, we'll have to reward that young range rider handsomely for his scouting."
MacDonald nodded agreement. "Yet it scarcely seems reasonable that the scoundrels would try so raw a deal," he said doubtfully.