"I know what yo're thinkin'. If I go now the 88 will think I've quit cold. Let 'em think it. I don't care. But I'll be back. I made an appointment with Blakely to meet him in Farewell three months from to-day." "That's good hearin'. But I'm shore sorry you ain't goin' to ride for me." "So'm I." "Stay over to-night anyway. Yuh ain't in any howlin' rush to get away, are yuh?" "No, I ain't so hurried. I dunno where I'll head--north, maybe." "If yo're goin' north, why don't yuh try Scotty Mackenzie? He owns the Flyin' M horse ranch over beyond Paradise Bend. There's three or four good cow ranches near the Bend--the Seven Lazy Seven, the Wagon-wheel, the Two Bar, an' the T V U." "Maybe I will hit the Bend." "If yuh do," pursued Richie, "yuh might stop an' say howdy at Cap'n Burr's. He married my sister, Burr did, an' all yuh got to do is say yuh know me, an' they'll give yuh the house. I guess, though, yuh know Cap'n Burr yoreself." "Shore I do. It was the Cap'n who put me on to buyin' Ranger here. He kept tellin' me about this amazin' good cayuse over at the 88, an' finally I went over, liked his looks, an' bought him. The Cap'n was at the 88 the day I took the hoss away. He'd just freighted in a bunch o' stuff Blakely'd ordered. Cap'n Burr does a powerful lot o' business." "Don't he now. Yuh wouldn't think tin-peddlin' would pay so well. Oh, him an' his little old team o' blues shore glom onto the coin." When Loudon rode into Farewell on the following day he saw half-a-dozen 88 cow-ponies hitched to the rail in front of the Palace Saloon. "Now that's cheerful," said Loudon. "For a peaceable feller I shore do tie in with trouble a heap." He turned aside at the hotel and tapped the landlord awake. At sight of Loudon Bill Lainey's eyes opened to their fullest extent and his red face turned purple with excitement. "Say," huskily whispered Lainey, "Shorty Simms, Rudd, Dakota Riley, an' three more o' the 88 boys are in town. They're tankin' up down in the Palace. Rudd's yowlin' round how he's goin' to drill yuh. He's a heap peevish, Rudd is. I guess now yuh must 'a' riled him somehow, Tom." "I guess maybe I did, Bill. I'll take a little walk down to the Palace after I eat. Thanks for the warnin'. Feed the little hoss, will yuh, Bill?" "Shore. Go on in an' holler for Lize." While Loudon was eating, a wiry, brisk little man with a white beard entered the dining room. "How are yuh, Cap'n?" grinned Loudon. Captain Burr, surprise and embarrassment in his steel-blue eyes, advanced and gripped Loudon's hand. "Loudon! By ----, suh!" he exclaimed. "This is indeed a pleasuh!" The tin-peddler slid into a chair and cleared his throat several times. "I feah, suh," he said, shamefacedly, "that I have trespassed on youah prese'ves. Had I known that you were in town I would have stayed my hand." "Why? What?" queried Loudon.