“All right, Morley,” he said with a grin.  “Get going; we’ll meet up with Sanderson at Devil’s Hole.”

CHAPTER XIX

A QUESTION OF BRANDS

Trailing a herd of cattle through a strange wild country is no sinecure.  There was not a man in the Double A outfit who expected an easy time in trailing the herd to Las Vegas, for it was a rough, grim country, and the men were experienced.

Wild cattle are not tractable; they have an irritating habit of obstinately insisting on finding their own trail, and of persisting in vagaries that are the despair of their escort.

The Double A herd was no exception.  On a broad level they behaved fairly well, though always requiring the attention of the men; but in the broken sections of country through which they passed, heart-breaking effort was required of the men to keep them headed in the right direction.

The men of the outfit had little sleep during the first two days of the drive.  Nights found them hot, tired, and dusty, but with no prospect of an uninterrupted sleep.  Still there was no complaint.

On the third night, the herd having been driven about forty miles, the men began to show the effects of their sleepless vigil.

They had bedded the herd down on a level between some hills, near a rocky ford over which the waters of a little stream trickled.

Buck and Andy were on their ponies, slowly circling the herd, singing to the cattle, talking to them, using all their art and persuasion to induce the herd to cease the restless “milling” that had begun with the effort to halt for the night.

Around the camp fire, which had been built at the cook’s orders, were Sanderson, Carter, Bud, Sogun, Soapy, and the Kid.  Carter stood at a little distance from the fire, watching the herd.

“That’s a damned nervous bunch we’ve got, boys,” he called to the other men.  “I don’t know when I’ve seen a flightier lot.  It wouldn’t take much to start ’em!”

“We’ll have our troubles gettin’ them through Devil’s Hole,” declared Soapy.  Soapy, so called because of his aversion to the valuable toilet preparation so necessary to cleanliness, had a bland, ingenuous face and perplexed, inquiring eyes.  He was a capable man, however, despite his pet aversion, and there was concern in his voice when he spoke.

“That’s why I wasn’t in no hurry to push them too far tonight,” declared Carter.  “I don’t want to get anywhere near Devil’s Hole in the darkness, an’ I want that place quite some miles away when I camp.  I seen a herd stride that quicksand on a run once, an’ they wasn’t enough of them left to make a good stew.

“If my judgment ain’t wrong, an’ we can keep them steppin’ pretty lively in the mornin’, we’ll get to Devil’s Hole just about noon tomorrow.  Then we can ease them through, an’ the rest ain’t worth talkin’ about.”