Dawn came while they wound over the crest of the range, and with the sun in their faces they took the downgrade. It was well into the morning before Nash reached Logan. He forced from his eye the contempt which all cattlemen feel for sheepherders. "I s'pose you're here askin' after Bard?" began Logan without the slightest prelude. "Bard? Who's he?" Logan considered the other with a sardonic smile. "Maybe you been ridin' all night jest for fun?" "If you start usin' your tongue on me, Logan you'll wear out the snapper on it. I'm on my way to the A Circle Y." "Listen; I'm all for old man Drew. You know that. Tell me what Bard has on him?" "Never heard the name before. Did he rustle a couple of your sheep?" Logan went on patiently: "I knew something was wrong when Drew was here yesterday but I didn't think it was as bad as this." "What did Drew do yesterday?" "Came up as usual to potter around the old house, I guess, but when he heard about Bard bein' here he changed his mind sudden and went home." "That's damn queer. What sort of a lookin' feller is this Bard?" "I don't suppose you know, eh?" queried Logan ironically. "I don't suppose the old man described him before you started, maybe?" "Logan, you poor old hornless maverick, d'you think I'm on somebody's trail? Don't you know I've been through with that sort of game for a hell of a while?" "When rocks turn into ham and eggs I'll trust you, Steve. I'll tell you what I done to Bard, anyway. Yesterday, after he found that Drew had been here and gone he seemed sort of upset; tried to keep it from me, but I'm too much used to judgin' changes of weather to be fooled by any tenderfoot that ever used school English. Then he hinted around about learnin' the way to Eldara, because he knows that town is pretty close to Drew's place, I guess. I told him; sure I did. He should of gone due west, but I sent him south. There is a south trail, only it takes about three days to get to Eldara." "Maybe you think that interests me. It don't." Logan overlooked this rejoinder, saying: "Is it his scalp you're after?" "Your ideas are like nest-eggs, Logan, an' you set over 'em like a hen. They look like eggs; they feel like eggs; but they don't never hatch. That's the way with your ideas. They look all right; they sound all right; but they don't mean nothin'. So-long." But Logan merely chuckled wisely. He had been long on the range. As Nash turned his pony and trotted off in the direction of the A Circle Y ranch, the sheepherder called after him: "What you say cuts both ways, Steve. This feller Bard looks like a tenderfoot; he sounds like a tenderfoot; but he ain't a tenderfoot." Feeling that this parting shot gave him the honours of the meeting, he turned away whistling with such spirit that one of his dogs, overhearing, stood still and gazed at his master with his head cocked wisely to one side.