What the cowboy had just said come from what he'd figgered, thought out, and worried on, ever since he'd first set eyes on Smoky. Clint liked all horses, maybe a little too much, but even at that he liked Smoky still more. The fear that somebody else would lay claim to the horse'd had him doing some tall thinking. He knowed that as long as he was breaking horses his work would come with raw broncs only and all half broke horses would be took away from him as fast as he'd turn 'em out. Smoky would had to go too. And that's where the hitch came. He figgered he'd have to quit breaking horses and go to riding the range, and take the big chance that the horse might be took away from him even then. He'd noticed how Jeff had stood, watched, and admired Smoky, and if signs of a human wanting anything right bad ever showed, there was never no signs more visible than Clint had seen on Jeff's features when the horse was in sight. There'd been only one way out for the cowboy, and he'd took it.--There was a worried look on his face as he glanced at the foreman and waited for him to answer, but Jeff didn't seem to want to answer right then, and instead he asked: "How long have you had that horse up, Clint?" "Two months and maybe a little over," says Clint, wondering some at the question. "Wasn't there a couple of boys here about a month ago to get _all_ the broncs you'd started?" "Yes." "Well then, why didn't you let 'em have that horse Smoky, he was as well broke then as any of the broncs the boys came after, wasn't he?" Clint begin to take interest in looking at the wall of the bunk house about that time. He grinned a little, and finally he answered: "Well, Jeff, I guess you know why." Jeff did know why, and knowed it a plenty. What he'd seen going on between Smoky and the cowboy the day before and that morning had already answered why Clint had hid the horse when the boys came to haze away the broncs he'd "started." The foreman grinned back at the layed up rider and placed a hand on his shoulder, the same as to say that he understood. "As long as I'm with this outfit," he says, "and which from all indications will be a long time, you're mighty welcome to join the wagon as one of my riders. You'll be getting 'top-hand' wages too, Clint, the best string of ponies I can put together, and as for Smoky, why--I sure would like that horse." Clint's heart fluttered up his throat and came near choking him--"Yep! I'd sure like to have him," went on the foreman "but, after thinking it all over, I figger that horse really belongs to you more than he does to the company or me. He's a one man horse and you're the one man, Clint, and even if the horse took a liking to me, which I know wont happen, I'll sure never want to take him away from you--not after what I've seen." * * * * *