Cowboy Dave | Page 4

soon
learns the trick of silence--it is so often forced on him.
As they turned aside to take a trail that led to Forked Branch, Dave,
who was riding a little ahead, drew rein. Instinctively Pocus Pete did
the same, and then Dave, pointing to the front, asked:
"Is that a man or a cow?"

CHAPTER II
THE TAUNT
Pocus Pete shaded his eyes with his hand and gazed long and earnestly
in the direction indicated by Dave Carson. The two cow-ponies,
evidently glad of the little rest, nosed about the sun-baked earth for
some choice morsel of grass.
"It might be either--or both," Pete finally said.
"Either or both?" repeated Dave. "How can that be?"
"Don't you see two specks there, Dave? Look ag'in."
Dave looked. His eyes were younger and perhaps, therefore, sharper
than were those of the foreman of Bar U ranch, but Dave lacked the
training that long years on the range had given the other.
"Yes, I do see two," the youth finally said, "But I can't tell which is
which."
"I'm not altogether sure myself," Pete said, quietly and modestly. "We'll

ride a little nearer," he suggested, "an' then we can tell for sure. I guess
we're on th' track of some strays all right."
"Some strays, Pete? You mean our strays; don't you?" questioned Dave.
"Well, some of 'em 'll be, probably," was the quiet answer. "But you've
got t' remember, Dave, that there's a point of land belongin' t' Centre O
ranch that comes up there along the Forked Branch trail. It may be
some of Molick's strays."
"That's so. I didn't think of that, Pete. There's more to this business than
appears at first sight."
"Yes, Dave; but you're comin' on first-rate. I was a leetle opposed to th'
Old Man sendin' you East to study, for fear it would knock out your
natural instincts. But when you picked up that man as soon as you did,"
and he waved his hand toward the distant specks, "when you did that, I
know you've not been spoiled, an' that there's hope for you."
"That's good, Pete!" and Dave laughed.
"Yes, I didn't agree with th' Old Man at first," the foreman went on,
"but I see he didn't make any mistake."
Mr. Carson was the "Old Man" referred to, but it was not at all a term
of disrespect as applied to the ranch owner. It was perfectly natural to
Pete to use that term, and Dave did not resent it.
"Yes, I'm glad dad did send me East," the young man went on, as they
continued on their way up the trail. "I was mighty lonesome at first, and
I felt--well, cramped, Pete. That's the only way to express it."
"I know how you felt, Dave. There wasn't room to breathe in th' city."
"That's the way I felt. Out here it--it's different."
He straightened up in the saddle, and drew in deep breaths of the pure
air of the plains; an air so pure and thin, so free from mists, that the
very distances were deceiving, and one would have been positive that

the distant foot-hills were but half an hour's ride away, whereas the
better part of a day must be spent in reaching them.
"Yes, this is livin'--that's what it is," agreed Pocus Pete." You can make
them out a little better now, Dave," and he nodded his head in the
direction of the two distant specks. They were much larger now.
"It's a chap on a horse, and he's going in the same direction we are,"
Dave said, after a moment's observation.
"That's right. And it ain't every cowpuncher on Bar U who could have
told that."
"I can see two--three--why, there are half a dozen cattle up there Pete."
"Yes, an' probably more. I reckon some of th' Centre O outfit has
strayed, same as ours. That's probably one of Molick's men after his
brand," Pete went on.
The Bar U ranch (so called because the cattle from it were branded with
a large U with a straight mark across the middle) adjoined, on the north,
the ranch of Jason Molick, whose cattle were marked with a large O in
the centre of which was a single dot, and his brand consequently, was
known as Centre O.
"Maybe that's Len," suggested Dave, naming the son of the adjoining
ranch owner.
"It may be. I'd just as soon it wouldn't be, though. Len doesn't always
know how to keep a civil tongue in his head."
"That's right, Pete. I haven't much use for Len myself."
"You an' he had some little fracas; didn't you?"
"Oh, yes, more than once."
"An' you tanned him good and proper, too; didn't you Dave?" asked the
foreman with a low chuckle.

"Yes, I