The cowboy found his voice. "Well, by gosh, if it ain't Tex! How they
stackin', old hand?"

"Howdy," replied the Texan, dryly.

"You take my advice an' lay low here in the bad lands an' they won't
ketch you. I said it right in the Long Horn yeste'day mornin'--they
was a bunch of us lappin' 'em up. Old Pete was there--an' I says to
Pete, I says, 'Take it from me they might ketch all the rest of 'em but
they won't never ketch Tex!' An' Pete, he says, 'You're just right
there, Joe,' an' then he takes me off to one side, old Pete does, an'
he says, 'Joe,' he says, 'I've got a ticklish job to be done, an' I
ain't got another man I kin bank on puttin' it through.'"

The Texan happened to know that Mr. Peter G. Kester, owner of the K 2,
was a very dignified old gentleman who left the details of his ranch
entirely in the hands of his foreman, and the idea of his drinking in
the Long Horn with his cowboys was as unique as was hearing him
referred to as "Old Pete."

"What's ailin' him?" asked the Texan. "Did he lose a hen, or is he
fixin' to steal someone's mewl?"

"It's them Bar A saddle horses," continued the cowboy, without noticing
the interruption. "He buys a string of twenty three-year-olds offen
the Bar A an' they broke out of the pasture. They range over here on
the south slope, an' if them horse-thieves down in the bad lands has
got 'em they're a-goin' to think twict before they run off any more K 2
horses, as long as I'm workin' fer the outfit."