'Well, you see, Brown had the dollars, so what could they do?' replied Snap. 'Of course they slept on the floor by themselves, but they had to do the work. They learned to split rails and make a fence, because Brown wanted his land enclosed. They learned to "do chores" because there was no one else to do them; they helped to cut the corn, and were kept at work at hay harvest until 9.30 P.M. more than once. All this they bore unmurmuringly; but it seems old Brown tells everyone that they are his "newies," that he has got them there out of charity to his sister, whose ne'er-do-weel children they are, and they don't like that; the old blackguard is always drunk, and they don't like that. There is no ranching or farming in a large way for them to learn, and they don't like that; and finally, though he has had 200_l._ premium and a year's labour out of them, he won't even now give them as much as he gives the nigger, and you bet they don't like that. So they are coming out here to look for work,' concluded Snap. 'The deuce, they are! Have they any money?' asked Nares. 'Not much, I should think; for, you see, they have thrown away their premium.' 'Well, I'll tell you what you had better do, if they are agreeable. Get old Dick to take you in as working partners. The old boy is very fond of you, and if you and the Winthrops could club together four or five hundred pounds from home, now that you have had some experience, and put it into a small lot of cattle, it might suit old Dick; and if it suited him, and this range of which he talks really exists, it would be a first-rate chance for you and your friends. I'll let you have the cattle cheap,' Nares concluded. Snap had been looking very anxious during this conversation. Now his keen young face brightened. He saw a chance for himself and his friends. 'But don't you think such an arrangement would be rather unfair to Wharton?' he asked. 'No, not a bit,' answered Nares stoutly. 'You are a really good man about a ranche now, and those two boys looked really likely lads, especially that big, fair-haired fellow; and then, too, Wharton has no capital worth speaking of.' 'I'll sound him anyhow, that can do no harm,' was Snap's comment; 'the boys will be here in a day or two.' 'Very well, if they are here when the round-up is going on they can lend a hand about the camp and make themselves useful, and after that you and Wharton can go with them to find this ranche.' 'Thanks,' replied Snap, and the man and boy bent from their saddles and shook hands warmly. If Nares was going to leave the Rosebud, Snap was not going to stay. That at any rate was clear to our hero's mind. More than that--if old Wharton would only take him into his venture there was nothing that he would like better. This, too, was clear to Snap's mind. At the first opportunity the boy sounded old Wharton on the subject. He had not to beat about the bush long.