"Yo're goin' to meet him in Farewell, ain't yuh? Seems to me Richie said somethin' about it." "Shore I am, but what's that got to do with it?" "Why, maybe that's the reason he wants yuh out of the way. He may not hanker after shootin' it out with yuh." "No, Sam Blakely ain't afraid," denied Loudon. "He wouldn't object any to meetin' me in Farewell if that was all there was to it. No, what's worryin' him is me bein' here at the Flying M. An' it's worryin' him a lot, or he'd never 'a' sent Block two hundred miles." "Well, I dunno. Yuh may be right, Tom, but I don't just guess Sam Blakely will try to put any crimps in me. He knows it would come kind o' high. Of course it's mighty puzzlin'. I don't understand it none. One thing, Blakely shore tried his best to get yuh down on the Lazy River, an' that's why it looks to me like Block was sent to put in the last licks." "He was, but not the way yuh think. I could gas my head off about Blakely up here in the Bend, an' it wouldn't matter a ---- so long as he was down on the Lazy. But if he left the Lazy an' come projeckin' up to the Bend, then what I'd be sayin' would count a lot. See now?" "I see," admitted Scotty. "Well, gimme a chance to find out what he's up to." "No, Tom, there's too much to do at the ranch. I can't let yuh go. Yo're too good a man. I need yuh right at home. We'll wait an' see what happens. Then we'll know what to do." "It may be too late then," grumbled Loudon. "If it is, then blame me. I'm the one to lose, anyway." "Yuh shore are." Oh, the denseness of ranch owners! Was Scotty Mackenzie to turn out another Saltoun? "It's a blind trail," observed Scotty, picking up the tangled thread of their discourse. "Some things kind o' fit when yuh look at 'em one way, an' then again they don't when yuh look at 'em another. Cutting don't fit, none whatever. All the time he worked for me, he only went to town twice, an' the last time was six months ago. O'Leary never come to see him, so if somethin's up like yuh say there is, Rufe's out of it. But that won't help him none now. He'll go out if we ever come up with him." "If we do," supplemented Loudon. "My idea exactly. That hoss o' yores can shore wriggle along, an' he had a big start." "I'm goin' through to Rocket anyhow." "Me, too." Till the latter half of the afternoon they kept the ponies loping. Then, slowing to a walk, they risked a short-cut and did not strike the trail again till the sun was setting. "Still keepin' together," announced Loudon, after one look at the trail. "An' still hittin' the high places," said Scotty. "Them two cayuses shore have bottom. Cutting knowed a good hoss all right." CHAPTER XI ROCKET