“There’s five hundred dollars’ advance in gold,” he said abruptly. “I’ll allow yo’ sixty dollars a month from date, until I notify yo’ this arrangement is canceled. Now”--he lifted a hand to silence Rock’s protest--“I don’t want yo’ to hesitate about nothing that’s calculated to protect the Snell interests. When yo’ protect them yo’ protect me. You’re a smart boy. Yo’ been raised in a cow country and had considerable Eastern education rammed down yo’ gullet. I don’t need to tell yo’ what a range boss can do to a cow outfit, if he sets out to do some good for himself at the outfit’s expense. It’ll be yo’ job to let me know if Buck Walters shows any such symptoms. If, to make sure of anything in connection with him, yo’ find it necessary to spend money, draw on this bank in yo’ own name. There is a railroad and a telegraph line through the southern part of Montana now. Yo’ can wire me direct anything important. If yo’-all get into trouble, I’ll back yo’ play.” “You certainly sound pessimistic, Uncle Bill,” Rock declared. “I don’t trust that fellow executor of mine no farther than I could throw him,” Sayre stated bluntly. “He’s a mighty powerful man, so yo’ can reckon how far that is. I feel a powerful sight of responsibility. I aim to see that Dave Snell’s children inherit this estate unimpaired by other persons with ambitions to enrich theirselves by methods that ain’t strictly accordin’ to Hoyle.” “All right, Uncle Bill,” Rock promised. “I’ll wander around the Maltese Cross and keep you posted on how she stacks up to my innocent eye. It won’t be soon. I’ll be six months on the drive. It may take me some time to learn anything. I can’t saunter onto the Maltese Cross range and say right off who’s who, and what’s what. So I’d just as soon not take your money until I start earning it. If you hear from me inside a year, you’ll be lucky.” “I’m not expectin’ Buck to try and put thirty thousand cattle in his hip pocket right off,” Sayre grinned. “He couldn’t. And he’s too all-fired smart to let his work--if any--be coarse. I’m merely insurin’ against contingencies. I could have picked thirty men to send into Montana, with a big cow outfit apiece, and never have an uneasy moment over any one of ’em. As I size up this situation----” Again that eloquent spread of his hands. “So,” he went on, “yo’ keep that money, because yo’-all might need it. That’s like a lawyer’s retaining fee, my son--an earnest of an’ undertakin’ entered into for a duly acknowledged consideration. Yo’ the man for the job, Rock. Yo’-all are entitled to pay. So don’t get highfalutin’ about a few measly dollars.” “Never found ’em measly yet,” Rock said lightly. “Though I’ve known lots of measly things done in behalf of ’em.” He slid the bag of gold into his trousers pocket, where it sagged uncomfortably when he arose.