"Hard work to come down to earth again after sailing round in Ludlum's airship," Rob commented as they watched their visitor ride away. "He'd make a fellow think that merely driving his critters on our land would start providence coining money to pay for them and making hay to feed them." "I don't see that we need trust especially in providence for hay and cash!" Harry exclaimed. "We're sure of fifty tons of alfalfa of our own this year, besides the wheat straw from fifty acres for roughage; and as for the cash payment on a hundred head, haven't I five hundred in the bank and you have almost three hundred? And we can always buy extra hay on the flat." "We're not _sure_ we can buy hay; we're not sure we'll put up fifty tons of our own. It's a dry year, and the grazing may go early; and we're not past the chance of a late frost. It's pure gambling to take on a hundred head of cattle now." "No more than taking the dozen you bought that first year was. We'll simply never make a real cleanup, Rob, if we never take a chance. I'd rather do it and maybe lose something--lose my five hundred dollars--than mosey along forever on the safe side." "Go ahead. If you think you can clear the moon in one jump, I won't put the hobbles on you. But be satisfied with the moon; don't try to take in the Dipper and the Milky Way, too. Take thirty head if you like, from Ludlum, but no more. We agreed to run the ranch together; and if you want to invest your earnings in cattle, all right. I'll ride after the critters when I'm not working the land, and if you put in half your money you can take thirty head at a thousand dollars, paying down a quarter cash and giving a mortgage on your land. That'll leave you two hundred and fifty dollars and me three hundred to get through the season with." "Five hundred and fifty dollars!" Harry exclaimed. "Why, Bobby, we could take more than thirty easy!" "Well, we're not going to. We'll risk something, but we'll not risk everything. The first of December there'll be interest to pay--ten per cent on seven hundred and fifty for six months; that's thirty-seven and a half dollars. And we'll have to pay something on the principal, or Ludlum won't be likely to renew the note, but I figure that the sale from beef critters we already have and from this new bunch should pay off another two hundred and fifty on the mortgage. That is, if we have good luck." A flash of resentment passed over Harry. Thirty head were so few! Could he not take even that small number without saying "if"? Her feeling of annoyance, however, was soon swept away in the discussion of details that Rob, with his usual foresight, insisted upon before they should start the following morning to settle the business with Ludlum.