"Another wire!" she exclaimed. "But, Rob, have you thought of the expense!" "Not half so expensive as wasting time running them off. Well, let's get busy. If you'll fetch Jeff, I'll change these wet shoes." Obediently, Harry went up the draw to the corral among the trees where they kept the work horses in summer. Her head ached, and there was a lump in her throat. How considerate of her Rob was! She had added just double to their difficulties, had added to their expenses, yet not one word of reproach did he give her. Instead he was always ready to help whenever she came to him--and that was pretty often. Handling cattle, she realized, was not to be learned by any "fifteen minutes a day" of study. "Cowboys certainly earn their wages," Harry admitted with a weary sigh, when, after several hours of weary work they had at last got the strangers outside the fence and had driven back inside several of their own cattle that had gone out with the others. It was six o'clock. They were both choked with dust, thirsty, saddle-sore and tired. Harry, aching from head to foot, longed to get into a bath and put on some clean clothes; instead, she must wash a panful of dishes and cook supper. "You're dead right," Rob agreed. "A buckaroo earns every cent he gets, and its almost impossible to run cattle without them." Every word was a blow to Harry's careless faith in herself. She listened in humble silence while Rob went on: "You can understand why I can't afford to ride cattle for nothing. I've simply got to disk that summer fallow and start work on the dam for the freshet-water reservoir. Every day I spend like this means a big loss, not only to me, but to the ranch as an investment." "Of course. I can see that," Harry answered quickly, "and I expect to pay you; but I haven't a cent of money now, as you know. I shall sell some steers in the fall, anyhow, and I can pay you then." "I'd rather you paid me in cattle. After I've hired out harvesting, I ought to have enough cash to buy all the winter hay I'll need for my own stock, and maybe some for yours. I'll go to town to-morrow for that wire. Maybe I can get it on time. That'll give me a little more cash to buy hay with." Harry wondered what she should do if the scrubs broke in while he was away. While Mrs. Ludlum had been talking, Harry had been ready to believe that she could do anything; now the time had come for her to show what she was actually good for. As soon as Rob had left the next morning, therefore, she made a circuit outside the fence and ran off all the cattle in sight. To her relief, that kept them away until the afternoon feeding began; then, making a second tour, she dispersed the lines that were headed for the alfalfa. "If I'd dogged them that way from the first," she thought, "they'd never have got inside at all." Rob did not get home that night, rather to Harry's satisfaction. "It gives me another day to see what I can do with these critters."