"Broke?" demanded Hopalong. Sammy flushed. "I ain’t gambled a cent since I hit town. An’ say, them pens won’t hold a tenth of ’em," he replied, looking over the dark blur that heaved under the dust cloud like a fog-covered, choppy sea. "I ’m goin’ to hold ’em on grass," replied the trail boss. "They ain’t got enough cars on this toy road to move all them cows in less ’n a week. I ain’t goin’ to let ’em lose no weight in pens. Wait a minute! You ’re on night herd for stayin’ away." When Sammy rode into camp the following morning he scorned Blinky’s food, much to the open-mouthed amazement of that worthy and Johnny Nelson. Blinky thought of doctors and death; but Johnny, noticing his bunkmate’s restlessness and the careful grooming of his person, had grave suspicions. "Good grub in this town?" he asked, saddling to go on his shift. Sammy wiped a fleck of dust off his boot and looked up casually. "Shore. Best is at the Dutchman’s at th’ far end of th’ street." Johnny mounted, nodded and departed for the herd, where Red was pleasantly cursing his tardiness. Red would eat Blinky’s grub and gladly. Johnny was cogitating. "There ’s a girl in this town, an’ he ’s got three days’ head start. No wonder them cars just got here!" Red’s sarcastic voice intruded. "Think I eat grass, or my stummick ’s made of rubber?" he snapped. "Think I feed onct a month like a snake?" "No, Reddie," smiled Johnny, watching the eyebrows lift at the name. "More like a hawg." Friday morning, a day ahead of the agent’s promise, the cars backed onto the siding and by noon the last cow of the herd was taking its first—and last—ride. Sammy slipped away from the outfit at the pens and approached the restaurant from the rear. He would sit behind the partition this time and escape his friends. The soft sand deadened his steps and when he looked in at the door, a cheery greeting on the tip of his tongue, he stopped and stared unnoticed by the sobbing girl bent over the table. One hand, outflung in dejected abandon, hung over the side and Sammy’s eyes, glancing at it, narrowed as he looked. His involuntary, throaty exclamation sent the bowed head up with a jerk, but the look of hate and fear quickly died out of her eyes as she recognized him. "An’ all th’ world tumbled down in a heap," he smiled. "But it ’ll be all right again, same as it allus was," he assured her. "Will Li’l Miss tell Sammy all about it so he can put it together again?"