“What would you do if you was in my place, June?”
“I was just thinking,” said June, “that if I were in your place I’d hire Jack Silver to work for me.”
Reber frowned quickly. “Hire him to—”
“Why not? You’d save money—and he would be worth what you paid him, wouldn’t he?”
“I never thought of that, June.”
They were interrupted by Hop Lee, who came in and told Reber that Slim Patterson of the Half-Wheel was waiting to see him. June left the room when Patterson came in.
“How’re yuh comin’?” asked Slim, sitting down in the chair June had vacated.
“All right,” said Reber. “Be out in a day or so.”
“Good! Say, I was back between Trapper Creek and the West Fork yesterday and I found about a hundred cows bunched in a draw back there. It shore looked as though somebody was all set for a drive. Me and ‘Chuck’ Avery laid there until night waitin’ for somebody to show up, but they didn’t.
“I left Chuck there and went home. Sent ‘Biddy’ Conley and Abe Lehman out to keep him company and pulled out for here this mornin’, after Biddy came in and said they hadn’t seen anybody yet.”