"Easy, eh!" growled Ned, when he caught up, "he ’s this easy: him and me started even up here, ’bout th’ same time. ’T was n’t long before he begun crowdin’ me. Neither of us had nuthin’ at first but when we quit he could show five cows to my one. How ’d he do it?" "Borrowed th’ money and bought yearlin’s," answered Buck. "Yes, he did," Ned grudgingly admitted. "But I kep’ a-watchin’ him an’ he allus branded more than th’ natural increase, every round-up—an’ I could never see how he done it." "You—don’t—say," was Buck’s thoughtful comment, "Well, down our way when a man gets to doin’ miracles on a free range we drops in on him casual an’ asks questions—they don’t do it twice"; and he unconsciously increased Allday’s pace. "Here, pull up," urged Ned; "this bronc ’s beginnin’ to blow. That’s a bang-up horse you ’ve got there. No good with cattle, is he?" "No," agreed Buck. "I got this horse because ’discretion is sometimes better than valler,’ as Tex Ewalt said when somebody asked him why he did n’t shoot Hoppy. Most times I finish what I start, but once in a while, on a big job, it’s healthy to take a vacation. An’ I naturally expected to leave some hasty an’ travel fast." "Ain’t nothin’ could catch you, in these parts, not if you got a good start, less’n it’s French Rose an’ Swallow." "Well, I was n’t aimin’ to run far nor yet to stay long. That seems like it ’d be th’ ranch." "That’s her," agreed Ned. The ranch house, rectangular and of much greater dimensions than Buck expected to find it, presented two novel features, one of which he noticed at once. "What’s th’ idea of a slopin’ roof, Ned?" he asked. "That’s Karl’s notion. See that upside down trough runs along th’ high part at th’ back? There ain’t a foot o’ that roof you can’t slosh with a bucket o’ water. An’ you can shoot along th’ walls from them cubby holes built out at each corner. Th’ house is a heap bigger ’n th’ old one was; it used to set over yonder in that valley, but th’ wipin’ out o’ Custer put th’ fear o’ God in Smiler an’ he raised this place soon after. Five men could stand off five hundred Injuns." "Where ’s th’ water?" Ned chuckled. "Wait till you see it. There ’s a well sunk at th’ side an’ you can pull it in without goin’ out-door if you wants to. Karl is one o’ them think-of-everything fellers. He put th’ ranch house on a knoll an’ th’ bunk-house on another. Then, he figgers, if they wants to rush me they ’ll be good an’ winded when they gets here. My shack is a pig-pen ’long side o’ this un’, but I got it figgered out I need n’t to stop if I don’t want." "How’s that, Ned?" "I could cut an’ run any time—come night. I ’ll show you when we goes over there."