"I ain't warbling for my health!" cried Hopalong. "You start them cows south right away." "I can't." Hopalong stared. "You can't! Got a sore thumb, mebby! Well, I reckon you can, an' will." "I can't. Boss won't let me." "Oh, he won't! Well, I feel sorry for yore boss but yo're going to push 'em just th' same." Antonio again shrugged his shoulders and lifted his hands in a gesture of helplessness. "How long you been here, an' how'd you get in?" "'N'our. By de _rio_." "Oh, yore foreman's goin' to raise h--l, ain't he!" Hopalong snorted. "He's going to pasture on us whether we like it or not, is he? He's a land thief, that's what he is!" "De boss ees all right!" asserted Antonio, heatedly. "If he is he's lop-sided, but he'll be _left_ if he banks on this play going through without a smash-up. You chase them cows home an' keep 'em there. If I find you flittin' around th' ends of th' line or herdin' on this side of it I'll give you something to nurse--an' you'll be lucky if you can nurse it. Come on, get a-going!" Antonio waved his arm excitedly and was about to expostulate, but Hopalong cut him short by hitting him across the face with his quirt: "D--n you!" he cried, angrily. "Shut yore mouth! Get them cows going! You coffee-colored half-breed of a Greaser, I've a mind to stop you right now. Come on, get a move on!" The Mexican's face grew livid and he tried to back away, swearing in Spanish. Stung to action by the blow, he jerked at his gun, but found Hopalong's Colt pushing against his neck. "Drop that gun!" the Bar-20 puncher ordered, his eyes flashing. "Don't you know better'n that? We've put up with yore crowd as long as we're going to, an' th' next thing will be a slaughter if that foreman of yourn don't get some sense, an' get it sudden. Don't talk back! Just start them cows!" The Mexican could do nothing but obey. His triumph at the success of his effort was torn with rabid hatred for the man who had struck him; but he could not fight with the Colt at his neck, and so sullenly obeyed. As they neared the line Hopalong ceased his personal remarks and, smiling grimly, turned to another topic. "I let you off easy; but no more. Th' next herd we find in our valley will go sudden an' hard. If anybody is guardin' it they'll never know what hit 'em." He paused for a moment and then continued, cold contempt in his voice: "I reckon you had to obey orders, but you won't do it again if you know what's good for you. If yore boss, as you calls him, don't like what I've done, you tell him I said to drive th' next herd hisself. If he ain't man enough to bring 'em in hisself, tell him that Cassidy says to quit orderin' his men to take risks he's a-scared of." "He ees brafe; he ain't 'fraid," Antonio rejoined. "He weel keel you ef I tell heem what you say." "Tell him jus' th' same. I'll be riding th' line mostly, an' if he wants to hunt me up an' confab about it he can find me any time."