Rowdy rode closer. "If you don't mind paying duty," he began tentatively, "I
can put you next to a range over the line, where I'll guarantee feed and
water the year round for every hoof you own."

Eagle Creek lifted his head and looked at him "Whereabouts?" he demanded
skeptically.

"Up in the Red Deer country. Pink knows the place. There's range a-plenty,
and creeks running through that never go dry; and the country isn't stocked
and fenced to death, like this is."

"And would we be ordered off soon as we got there?"

"Sure not--if you paid duty, which would only be about double what you were
going to pay for one year's pasture."

Eagle Creek breathed deeply, like a man who has narrowly escaped
suffocation. "Young man, I b'lieve you're a square dealer, and that yuh
savvy the cow business. I've thought it ever since yuh started t' work." His
keen old eyes twinkled at the memory of Rowdy's arrival, and Rowdy grinned.
"I take yuh at your word, and yuh can consider yourself in charge uh this
herd as it stands. Take it t' that cow heaven yuh tell about--and damn it,
yuh won't be none the worse for it!"

"We'll pass that up," said Rowdy quietly. "I'll take the herd through,
though; and I'd advise you to get the rest on the road as soon as they can
be gathered. It's a three-hundred-mile drive."

"All right. From now on it's up to you," Eagle Creek told him briskly. "Take