"This is th' one time I'd rather have cash," replied the foreman. "With cash, in th' next week, I can make a quick turnover." "Cash it is," said Ridley. "Gold or bills?" "Make it bills," answered Big Tom. "I'm glad I met you boys--come up again next year. If yo're lookin' for good cattle then I'll have plenty." "Then I reckon we'll be here. So-long." "So-long," replied the foreman, watching them ride away. As they dropped from sight over a rise he smiled cynically and went back to the ranchhouse. Pausing at the door, he looked out over the range in the direction of the northwest section and the Double X, and slowly turned his head, his gaze passing along the horizon, behind which lay Gunsight, Green Valley, and the SV ranchhouse. "I said it easy," he growled. "_Me_ throw over a couple of hundred head of mavericks to Arnold, an' split up th' rest four ways? It makes me laugh! An' when I hit Nelson he'll wonder what kind of brains he really _has_ got. There's a jolt comin' to this section, an' it'll be Big Tom that springs it. About one week more an' _I_ play _my_ hand!" Four days passed and then, in the afternoon of the fifth a great dust cloud appeared far down the Highbank trail. Fraser discovered it and called Big Tom from the ranchhouse. The foreman glanced south, told the puncher to ride off and get the herd started, and then hurried to his horse, sprang into the saddle, and rode toward McCullough's sign. He had hardly more than gained the regular trail when he saw seven men riding toward him at a good pace, and no second glance was needed to identify the one who rode in the middle and slightly ahead.