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It was days, however, before Bowers found the opportunity to go to Dibert's camp with supplies and incidentally warn Neifkins's herder, if he was still crowding. Now as he jolted towards the fluttering rag, thrust in a pile of rocks to mark the location of Dibert's sheep-wagon, his thoughts, for once, were not of sheep or anything pertaining to them.
After Bowers had brought the supply wagon up and unloaded, he secured the horses and started on foot up the mountain. From the summit he could see the white canvas top of Neifkins's wagon gleaming among the quaking asp well down the other slope of the mountain. No one was visible, but as he got closer he saw Dibert's horse tied to the wheel. Bowers felt "hos-tile."
"Tsch! tsch!" Kate frowned her annoyance at the information. "Be sure and warn Neifkins's herder as soon as you can get around to it," she reminded him. "You bet!" Bowers responded cheerfully, and went on. Yes, she certainly would miss Bowers if anything happened that he left her, she thought as she turned inside to her market report and her letters.
"Dibert's havin' trouble with Neifkins's herder says the feller does most of his herdin' in the wagon, and there would a been a 'mix' a dozen times if he hadn't been with his sheep every minute. Dibert says it looks to him like the feller's doin' it on purpose." "I don't know but what I'd rather have it that way than for them to be too friendly.
Smiling at the brash act he contemplated, Bowers threw the brake mechanically as the front wheels of the wagon sank into a chuck-hole and the jolt all but landed him on the broad rump of Old Peter. As he raised his eyes he saw a sight charged with significance to one familiar with it. Neifkins's sheep were coming down the side of the mountain like a woolly avalanche.
More 'mixes' come from herders visiting than any other cause, and I wouldn't run that band through the chutes for three hundred dollars. It would take that much fat off of them, to say nothing of the bother. Who is Neifkins's herder?" "I ain't seen him. Dibert says he's an o'nery looker." "Next time you go over, notify him that he's to herd lines closer.
As he sat down to extract it, he considered whether it would be advisable to pound Dibert to a jelly when he found him or wait until they got a herder to replace him. The man's horse and saddle were missing in camp, Bowers discovered, so it was fairly safe to assume that he was over visiting Neifkins's herder.
The leaders of the two bands were not fifty feet apart when Bowers, realizing he could not get between them, reached for a rock with a faint hope that he might hit what he aimed for. His prayer was answered, for the ewe in the lead of Neifkins's band blinked and staggered as the rock bounced on her forehead.
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