“Thank you,” bowed Emma. “I could not have said it better myself,” whereupon the other girls laughed merrily, and Stacy drew off by himself where he sat sullenly observing the work going on below him.
All day the milling about, the cutting-out, the yells and the bellows, with here and there a sharp encounter between cowboy and an ugly steer, continued without a let-up. No one thought of eating. There was too much work to be done, and even the Overlanders forgot their noon luncheon which they had brought with them.
At twilight the cowmen were still busy, but by this time they had several hundred animals in the big corral, and in another a bunch of stock for branding, while out on the range as many more animals were stirring about restlessly. Campfires began to spring up here and there, over which tired riders cooked their slender suppers and rested before taking up the work of the night. This work included branding and keeping rounded-up the stock left out on the range. Bindloss joined the Overlanders at their coffee and bacon. He was covered with dust and his voice was hoarse from yelling at cattle and at his riders.
“How long is this thing going to continue?” questioned Stacy Brown.
“All night, young feller. Of course things will quiet down ’long ’bout midnight. We’ve got to get some rest, you know.”
Grace said she thought that they should be starting back towards camp after supper, but Bindloss shook his head.
“Some of the men will be going in later in the evening. I’d rather have you folks wait and ride in with them,” he said, but without giving any reason for the request. “You can ride ’bout after supper, but keep away from milling bunches, and see the sights. You’ll be interested in the branding, if you’ve never seen it done.”
Soon after supper the girls of the party, accompanied by Stacy, rode down the valley. There they scattered somewhat, Emma first having discovered Two-gun Pete and stopping to talk with him. Stacy rode on, saying that he wished to see the rest of the show.
Pete told Emma that he did not like the way the cattle had been acting that day. He averred that something had been stirring them up of late, but reckoned it must be a mountain lion that had been trying to get the calves. Whether or not the beast had succeeded he said he did not know, for no one knew how many calves there were in any of the herds.
Two-gun Pete had work to do, so Emma rode on and joined her companions whom she found chatting with the owner of the ranch, who sat his pony surveying the activity that was everywhere. They wondered how he could make anything out of all the confusion in the darkness, which the many little fires merely accentuated. Joe Bindloss, however, knew exactly what was going on at all points of the round-up.