few miles of blackened range concerned them personally not at all.
Still, barring a fondness for the trail which led to town, they were not
unfaithful to their trust.

One day Kent and Polycarp met on the brink of a deep coulee, and, as is the
way of men who ride the dim trails, they stopped to talk a bit.

Polycarp, cracking his face across the middle with his habitual grin,
straightened his right leg to its full length, slid his hand with
difficulty into his pocket, brought up a dirty fragment of "plug" tobacco,
looked it over inquiringly, and pried off the corner with his teeth. When
he had rolled it comfortably into his cheek and had straightened his leg
and replaced the tobacco in his pocket, he was "all set" and ready for
conversation.

Kent had taken the opportunity to roll a cigarette, though smoking on the
range was a weakness to be indulged in with much care. He pinched out the
blaze of his match, as usual, and then spat upon it for added safety before
throwing it away.

"If this heat doesn't let up," he remarked, "the grass is going to blaze up
from sunburn."

"It won't need to, if you ask me. I wouldn't be su'prised to see this hull
range afire any time. Between you an' me, Kenneth, them Double Diamond
fellers ain't watching it as close as they might. I was away over Dry Creek
way yesterday, and I seen where there was two different fires got through
the company's guards, and kited off across the country. It jest _happened_
that the grass give out in that red day soil, and starved 'em both out.
They wa'n't _put_ out. I looked close all around, and there wasn't nary a