"Never saw him before to-day. But I like his looks. He's a man to tie
to."

"You're right he is."

The drover looked at his new employee with a question in his shrewd eyes.
The boy was either a man out of a thousand or he was a first-class
bluffer. He claimed to have cut Indian sign and to know exactly what was
written there. At a single glance he had sized up Prince and knew him
for a reliable side partner. Without any bluster he had served notice on
Yankie that it would be dangerous to pick on him as the butt of his
ill-temper.

In those days, on the Pecos, law lay in a holster on a man's thigh. The
individual was a force only so far as his personality impressed itself
upon his fellows. If he made claims he must be prepared to back them to a
fighting finish.

Was this young Thursday a false alarm? Or was he a good man to let alone
when one was looking for trouble? Webb could not be sure yet, though he
made a shrewd guess. But he knew it would not he long before he found
out.




Chapter II

Shoot-a-Buck Cañon