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Thet's where the rub comes in. We played their game. Wasted a lot of shells on them damn broomies! So how could we fight?" "Ah-huh!" groaned Pan, appalled at the fatality of the whole incident. "Pan, I reckon you'd better swaller the dose, bitter as it is, an' bluff Hardman into leavin' us a share of the hosses." "Say, man, are you drunk or loco?" flashed Pan scornfully.
After they had drunk their fill they pawed the mud and rolled in the water, to come up most unsightly beasts. Pan let out a loud yell. Swift as antelopes the horses swept away. "Shore they left there!" drawled Blinky. Then talking to his own horse, which he slapped with his sombrero, he said: "Now you smelled them broomies, didn't you? Want to run right off an' turn wild, huh!
I've talked with him." "Blinky, old-timer, we've got the broomies sold. Now let's figure on catching them," replied Pan joyfully. "And we'll cut out a few of the best for ourselves." "An' a couple fer our lady friends, hey, pard!" added Blinky, with violence of gesture and speech. Down the steep slope, through brush and thickets, they slid like a couple of youngsters on a lark.
"We've got aboot fifty broomies out heah in a canyon. We'll drive 'em in today, an' also some saddle hosses for you." "I'll buy a horse," interposed Pan. "You'll do nothin' of the sort," declared Blinky stoutly. "Ain't we got a string of hosses, an' there shore might be one of them good enough even for Panhandle Smith. But you want a saddle. There's one in Black's store.
"What kind of a day did you boys have?" countered Pan with a laugh. "Good an' bad," replied Gus, while Blinky shook his head. "Some hoss thieves have been runnin' off our stock. We had some fine hosses, not broke yet. Some we wanted to keep." "What's the good news?" queried Pan, as Hans hesitated. "Pan, I'll be doggoned if we didn't see a million broomies today," burst out Blinky. "No.
"You'll admit, though, that there are some fine horses among these?" asked Pan earnestly. "Wal, Pan, to stop kiddin' you, now an' then a fellar sees a real hoss among them broomies. But shore them boys are the hard ones to ketch." The last of Blinky's remark forced Pan's observation upon the cardinally important point the lay of the land.
To his amaze and delight he saw almost as many wild horses as before the drive. "Gee, I'm greedy," he muttered. "Lucky as I've been, I want to stay and make another drive." "Wal, pard, I'm readin' your mind," drawled Blinky. "But don't feel bad. If we tried thet drive again we might ketch a few. But you cain't fool them broomies twice the same way." Another difficulty soon presented itself.
Handling the horses we've caught." "Shore thet all depends. If we sell heah, fine an' dandy. The other fellar will have the hell. Reckon, though, we want to cut out a string of the best hosses fer ourselves. Thet's work, when you've got a big drove millin' round. Shore is lucky we built thet mile-round corral. There's water an' feed enough to last them broomies a week, or longer on a pinch."
We've been doin' pretty good. Hardman an' Wiggate pay twelve dollars an' four bits a hoss on the hoof. Right heah in Marco. We could get more if we could risk shippin' to St. Louis. But thet's a hell of a job. Long ways to the railroad, an' say, mebbe drivin' them broomies isn't tough! Then two of us anyhow would have to go on the freight train with the hosses.
" who'd ever think of these heah broomies turnin' into a gold mine?" he ended his tribute to the scene. But to Pan it meant much more than fortune; indeed at first he had no mercenary thought whatsoever. Horses had been the passion of his life. Cattle had been only beef, hoofs, horns to him. Horses he loved.
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