The Lure of the Dim Trails

e bellows and closed the box with a snap. "I wonder w

d w

throw up his dry-point heads and take to

osphere. Here and there the white tents of waiting trail-outfits splotched the bright green of the prairie. Horsemen galloped to and from the town at top speed, and a long

urrying waters of the Yellowstone. It was good to be alive and young, and to live the tented life of the plains; it was good even to be "speeding fleetly where the g

th new conditions and new aims. He had come West to look upon the life from the outside, and now his chief thou

the Circle Bar shipment. Their bunch comes from the sam

e called "form," rope the horse he wanted; to say nothing of the times when his loop settled unexpectedly over the wrong vict

like to watch them unload, and I can get

many times as I have," Park told him, "yuh won't n

f the way, and smoked cigarettes while he watched the cattle and shouted pleasantries to the men who prodded and swore and gest

m, "I can't see where they all come from. For two days these yard

tana is some bigger than you realize, I guess. And next fall, when shipping starts, you'll think you're seeing raw porterhouse st

ng cattle flowing down the steep chutes into the pens, from the pens to the branding chutes, where they were burned deep with the mark of their new owners; then out through the great gate, crowding, pushing, wild to flee from restraint, yet held in and guided by mounted cowboys; out upon the green prairie where they could feast once more upon sweet

ecame in a breath the cool, business-like leader of men. Holding the envelope still in his hand he sought out Thurston, who was

another target. You'll have the tent down over Scotty's ea

chances on licking yuh into shape. Maybe the wages won't appeal to yuh, but I'm willing to throw in heaps uh valu

stead of an onlooker. "I'll take the job, Park-if you think I can hold it down." The speech would doubtless have astonished Reeve

ral if yuh get fired. Better stake yourself to

k handkerchief if I want to loo

uh mean," Park flung over his shoulders. "Your w

a long pole in his hand, stood on the narrow plank near the top of a chute wall and prodded vaguely at an endless, moving incline of backs. Incidentally he took

o weeks; just as it would hover every day for two weeks longer. Across the yards near the big, outer gate Deacon Smith's crew was already beginning to brand. The first train was barely unloaded w

rn the art of working so that every movement counted something accomplished, as did the others; besides, he had been in constant fear of losing his hold on the fence and plunging headlong among

since both crews would brand that afternoon and get the corrals cleared for the next shipme

es cut through; a new tang smote the nostrils: the rank odor of burning hair and searin

t there were things more wearisome than "hollering 'em down the chutes." His eyes were smarting intolerably with smoke and heat, and the smell of the branding was not nice; but through the long afternoon he stuck to the work, shrewdly guessing that the others were not having any fun either

y three cents, Bud?" Park asked him. And Thurston

ve a deep, inner knowledge of

s for two or three hours at a stretch before yuh talk about t

irty six hours long. He was just settling into a luxurious, leather-upholstered dream chair prep

s-we got a tra

chutes, prodding down at a wavering line of moving shadows, while the "big dipper" hung bright in the sky and lighted lanterns bobbed back and forth

ting his aching body with the promise of rest and sleep; but three thousand cattle were milling impatiently in the stockyards, so presently he found himself fannin

et the real thing in local color," he taunted, but Thurston was too bus

dead. But he awoke with the others and thanked the

the veterans. He would have been filled with resentment had he suspected the truth: that Park carefully eased those first da