them a voice boomed at him a question.

"Well, young fellow, are you satisfied with all the trouble you've made
me?"

He turned, to see standing before him the owner of the Fifty-Four Quarter
Circle brand. The boy's surprise fairly leaped from his eyes.

"Didn't expect to see me here, I reckon," the cattleman went on. "Well,
I hopped a train soon as I got yore first wire. Spill yore story, young
man."

Dave told his tale, while the ranchman listened in grim silence. When
Sanders had finished, the owner of the stock brought a heavy hand down on
his shoulder approvingly.

"You can ship cattle for me long as you've a mind to, boy. You fought for
that stock like as if it had been yore own. You'll do to take along."

Dave flushed with boyish pleasure. He had not known whether the cattleman
would approve what he had done, and after the long strain of the trip
this endorsement of his actions was more to him than food or drink.

"They say I'm kinda stubborn. I didn't aim to lie down and let those guys
run one over me," he said.

"Yore stubbornness is money in my pocket. Do you want to go back and ride
for the Fifty-Four Quarter Circle?"

"Maybe, after a while, Mr. West. I got business in Denver for a few
days."

The cattleman smiled. "Most of my boys have when they hit town, I
notice."

"Mine ain't that kind. I reckon it's some more stubbornness," explained
Dave.

"All right. When you've finished that business I can use you."

If Dave could have looked into the future he would have known that the
days would stretch into months and the months to years before his face
would turn toward ranch life again.




CHAPTER XII

THE LAW PUZZLES DAVE


Dave knew he was stubborn. Not many men would have come on such a
wild-goose chase to Denver in the hope of getting back a favorite horse
worth so little in actual cash. But he meant to move to his end
intelligently.

If Miller and Doble were in the city they would be hanging out at some
saloon or gambling-house. Once or twice

Martha Finley (1828 - 1909) was a teacher and author of numerous works, the most well known being the 28 volume Elsie Dinsmore series which was published over a span of 38 years. The daughter of Presbyterian minister Dr. James Brown Finley and his wife and cousin Maria Theresa Brown Finley, she was born on April 26th, 1828 in Chillicothe, Ohio. Finley wrote many of her books under the psodonym Martha Farquharson. She died in 1909 in Elkton, Maryland, where she moved in 1876.

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