AN OLD, OLD FRIEND
His first impulse was to deliver the message, but upon
second thought he decided that nothing would be accomplished
by it, and it might disturb her. He argued that
with a range war pending she already had enough worries.
If only he could get word to Teeters somehow — or
Lingle, even — to keep a lookout for the fellow, but since
he was many miles off the line of travel and he dared not
leave his sheep, there was small chance of notifying either.
It was a good many days before the incident was out of Bowers's mind for any length of time. He kept his shotgun handy and was on the alert constantly, listening, searching the surrounding country for a moving object, and muttering frequently, " What was he doin' here, any- how — moggin' round the mountains — comin' from no- whur, goin' nowhur I "
But a month passed and nothing happened, either in Bowers's camp or at the others. Since the warning had implied that any attempt to move further would be stopped immediately, and yet all the wagons were now well up the mountain, both Kate and Bowers concluded that the threatening scrawl was intended only to annoy her.
" Ma-aa-aa ! " Mary bleated like a fretful teething child, and held up his head for Bowers to rub the feverish horns as his foster parent sat on a box beside the wagon one lazy afternoon.
"I declare, Mary, I'll be most as glad when them horns
cut through as If they growed on me ! I could raise a
baby by hand 'thout any more trouble than it's took to
bring you up." The lamb stood stock still as he yielded
to his importunities, and Bowers continued whimsically:
"I been a father and mother to you, Mary, an' you might
a-been an orphing through your own orn'riness if I hadn't
throwed down on that feller pretty pronto.
"No denyin' 'twould have made a preacher peevish to
221
