Donald was ready to attend to the cooking so far as he could. There really was not much to do, for they had brought some bread; and all that was necessary was to cut and fry some meat, and boil the coffee. Jack suggested that Donald might skin the antelope and get the meat ready for frying. It would take the two Jacks only a short time to ride over to the cattle, but if they proved to be Sturgis' cattle they ought to be looked after. If they had located themselves up on the high bench and were likely to stay there, there was no special reason for driving them back into the Basin; on the other hand, if they were slowly traveling away from the Basin they ought to be turned back. When the boys reached the cattle--only fifteen or eighteen head--they found that they were Sturgis' cattle, chiefly cows and young stock, but with them four or five steers, some of which would be ready for shipment that autumn. A careful look over the ground, and the discovery of a more or less worn trail where the cattle seemed for several days to have been going to water, made the men think that the animals were not traveling, but would stay there, or thereabout, for some time. "Well," said Jack Danvers, "I believe these cattle have stopped here. Why not leave them alone, and keep an eye on them for the day or two that we are hunting here, and then when we start back two of us can drive them along to the ranch and turn them loose down by the lake?" "I guess that's the thing to do," agreed Jack Mason. "Meantime, if they should move away, one of us can pick up the trail and probably overtake 'em. I don't seem to remember any of these cows on the round-up, but of course they were there." "I remember that black and white cow and her calf, and that bob-tailed bay steer over there. I think the day they were cut out was about the time you went into town to interview your friend Claib Wood." Mason laughed. "I just envy you fellows the fun you had out of that little argument that Claib and I had in town. I believe I've been better than a comic paper to that round-up camp, and it didn't cost 'em anything, either." When they returned to camp they found that Donald had been busy. The beds were in the tent ready for unrolling; the antelope had been skinned and meat cut for frying; the coffee had been boiled and was standing in the ashes near the fire where it would keep hot. Donald had unsaddled his horse and turned it loose with drag-rope, and had tied the ropes of the two work horses to bunches of sage-brush. "Bully for you!" called Jack. "This looks like business. Just as soon as we picket our horses we can have supper." The work of picketing the horses so that they could get as much grass as possible and yet would not get tangled in one another's ropes was soon over, and before the sun had set the simple meal was finished and the dishes washed, ready for breakfast.