One of "Henery's" boots sailed through the air just then, and Steve
had to dodge it. Henry was not on the first watch.

Walter went out with the first crew. Somebody lent him a slicker,
for rain was prophesied. Steve said, drawlingly:

"If it keeps on like this so wet, we might's well be in the middle
of the Pacific Ocean. It's rained twice in ten weeks."

Walter's instructions were to keep just in sight of the man riding
around the herd ahead of him, to take it easy, and not to do
anything to disturb the quiet herd. Some of the cattle were lying
down chewing their cud; others were moving slowly while they
cropped the grass, all headed west. Riding herd seemed, after an
hour or two, to be the dreariest kind of work to the Eastern boy.

Then he noticed that there was a chill in the air and that distant
lightning played on the clouds to the north. The cattle all got
upon their feet. It did not appear that they were really unquiet;
yet there was a certain tension in the air that they must have
felt, as well as the herders.

Suddenly there was a near-by flash of lightning followed by a peal
of thunder. The camp remained quiet; but the cattle began to snort
and paw the earth. Each flash showed Walter that the animals were
crowding closer and closer together. They were still heading west.

In the light of another dazzling bolt the boy beheld several
horsemen riding down the other side of the cup shaped valley--the