Grizzled old Nick Nomad, solitary representative of law and order on an expanse broader than the eye could span, was making his lonely way eastward in what he understood to be the wake of his pards. He was talking to himself, possibly, but his conversation was directly addressed to Hide-rack, the horse that the famous old trapper and trailer loved better than any he ever bestrode.
“Now, look hyar, Hide-rack, yew cantankerous ole heifercat, don’t ye reckon it’s ’bout time ter pitch our tent an’ eat our doughnuts? We’ve plodded on middlin’ plenty sence sunup, an’ sez I, Nick, ole boy, yer tummy is makin’ love ter yer backbone. What yer say, Hide-rack, ye ole rye-an’-Injun mix-up?”
Nomad’s pet names might not have appealed to ears more refined than Hide-rack’s, but the sound of his master’s voice and the kindly pats on his neck that accompanied them lifted the tired ears of the courageous animal, and he briskly increased his pace.
“Waugh! Hide-rack, thet’s jest like ye—better arter a sixty-mile run than ye wor at ther start-off. Yer ther clear——
“By ther great horn spoon an’ granny’s ole tin ladle! Ef thar hain’t er c’ral-a-loomin’ up ez big as life right off here whar ther moon is goin’ ter come up sometime, mebbe. D’ye hyar thet, Hide-rack? The’s fodderin’s an’ comp’ny ahead. Boom ’er up, ole hoss pard; we wants ter make er showin’ when we lite.”
Probably Hide-rack did not catch the full meaning of his man pard’s words, but at about that time his animal instinct served notice that creatures of his kind were nigh, and, raising his head, the horse, too, saw the human habitation with all its suggestions of feed and rest.
The tired animal lifted head and tail, and, as Nomad expressed it, “set sail fer ther c’ral lickerty split.”
Old Nomad dashed up to the ranch, or, rather, the home of a stockman who had brought his family to the plains, and shouted:
“Whooee! in thar—ye all dead, er on’y jes’ nachally givin’ ther reds er chanst ter jump in an’ gobble ther hull kerboodle ov ye?”
A tall, dark, broad-shouldered man with piercing eyes and heavy beard stepped to the door.