“I’m overdue at the studio now, by several days. If Mills could get that contract for me, it’s gone blooey by this time. And he can’t get word to me or hear from me--I’m not even famous enough yet to make good publicity out of my disappearance. Soon as Monty comes, I intend to beat it in to Las Vegas and wire Mills. Then if there’s nothing doing for me in pictures right now, I’ll get out and see how good I am as a salesman. “But I hate to let that four-flusher up here in the rocks think he’s got the laugh on me. And that alfalfa ought to be put up, and no mistake. The spuds need water, too. After the trusty hoe has got in its deadly work on the weeds, a good soaking would make them look like a million dollars. And I suppose the pigs ought to be shut up before they root up all the spuds on the place--but then some one would have to be here to look after them. That’s the heck of it, Pat. When you get a place on your hands, you simply let yourself in for a dog’s life, looking after it. “You had a picture of me riding out at dawn after the cattle! That shows how much you don’t know. All told there’s about fifteen head of stock that water here at the mouth of the creek. I mean, at the end of the creek where it flows into a big hole and forgets to flow out again. It acts kind of tired, anyway, getting that far; no pep to go farther. As for horses, Monty and I looked for your horses as we came across the desert out here. There wasn’t a hoof in sight, and Monty says they’re probably watering over at another spring about fifteen miles from here. It’s too far to walk and drag a loop, Pat. So your dashing Western hee-ro can’t dash. Nothing to dash on. That’s a heck of a note, ain’t it? “Did you ever try to make three meals fill up a day? Well, don’t. Can’t be did. I’ve read all the magazines--the whole two. I also have read Mr. Waddell’s complete library. One is ‘Cattle and Their Diseases,’ and the other is ‘Tom Brown’s School Days,’ with ten pages gone just when I was getting a kick out of it. That was one day when it rained. I knew a man once who could go to bed at sundown and sleep till noon the next day. I don’t believe he kept a psychic cat, though, or chased voices all over the hills. Anyway, I forgot to find out how he did it.