“Nobody said you could,” Robin flung over his shoulder as he reached for his stirrup. Dark found him sitting with his feet on his own stove, in a house without food or bedding, thinking, thinking! To-morrow he would ride back to town. But to-night--here--he was not conscious of hunger nor of physical discomfort as he sat with hands clasped over his knees with an ache in his breast and a turmoil in his brain. Sometimes it was bad for a man to see things too clearly. CHAPTER XVII--A CHALLENGE Before dawn Robin saddled and headed south on the trail of Red Mike. Minus supper and breakfast he was hungry. But his mount was fresh and fed with grazing in the little pasture. Robin was tough. A meal more or less didn’t greatly matter. And sunrise brought him a happier mood. Luck also bestowed a double quantum as if to make up for past niggardliness. Ten miles from the Bar M Bar he ate hot cakes and coffee with a lowly sheep herder tending his flock on the northern flank of Chase Hill. Within an hour of that camp he found his sorrel horse, ranging as the cow horse at liberty was wont to range, with a band of the untamed. The wild bunch broke headlong in the general direction of the Bar M Bar. Robin fell in behind them. The direction suited his book. He had a bed roll and a packsaddle still at Mayne’s, and a cow-puncher’s bed was part of his working outfit. He would need that bedding. So he loped behind the wild horses until they ran themselves out. Once Robin caught up and jogged at their heels he headed them where he wished. With rope ready he watched his chance. A touch of the spurs, a deft throw, and the rawhide noose closed about Red Mike’s burnished copper neck. Robin led him on to Mayne’s, changed his saddle to Red Mike’s back and lashed his bedding on the livery horse. He saw Ivy’s face for a moment at a window. Her father strolled over to say a word or two. Robin answered in monosyllables, not because he was still angry or resentful--that had all evaporated--but because there was nothing more to say. When the last hitch was taken in the pack rope he rode on.