"Good for you, Johnny!" nodded Douglas. "When I get my old ranch going,
you come up and work for me."

"I will so do," replied the old man solemnly, and he rode away in the
moonlight.

And Douglas returned to the new theme old Johnny had given him. Of
what were women made that they could be over-broken as his father had
over-broken Mary? And why should Lost Chief, so small that control was
simple, permit such a thing to be?




CHAPTER V

THE HUNT ON LOST CHIEF

"A guy that don't rustle cattle when the rustling is good, is a fool."

--_Scott Parsons_.


One hot afternoon in August Douglas had just unhitched the panting team
from the plow in the new oat field when Charleton Falkner trotted up on
Democrat.

"How's the fall plowing, Doug?"

"Just out of the woods, Charleton."