CHAPTER II

THE COMPANY OF THE NOBLE SEVEN


As we were dismounting, the cries, "Hello, Jack!" "How do, Dale?"
"Hello, old Smoke!" in the heartiest of tones, made me see that my
cousin was a favorite with the men grouped about the door. Jack simply
nodded in reply and then presented me in due form. "My tenderfoot cousin
from the effete," he said, with a flourish. I was surprised at the grace
of the bows made me by these roughly-dressed, wild-looking fellows. I
might have been in a London drawing-room. I was put at my ease at once
by the kindliness of their greeting, for, upon Jack's introduction,
I was admitted at once into their circle, which, to a tenderfoot, was
usually closed.

What a hardy-looking lot they were! Brown, spare, sinewy and hard as
nails, they appeared like soldiers back from a hard campaign. They moved
and spoke with an easy, careless air of almost lazy indifference,
but their eyes had a trick of looking straight out at you, cool and
fearless, and you felt they were fit and ready.

That night I was initiated into the Company of the Noble Seven--but of
the ceremony I regret to say I retain but an indistinct memory; for they
drank as they rode, hard and long, and it was only Jack's care that got
me safely home that night.

The Company of the Noble Seven was the dominant social force in the Swan
Creek country. Indeed, it was the only social force Swan Creek knew.
Originally consisting of seven young fellows of the best blood of