“Buck,” he shouted.
Buck came, his blank face more blank than before.
“I got a cow and a calf over there,” he said.
Douglas grinned. No man argued with Buck. As a horsebreaker he was the pride of both Islands. Beyond that he was a child, and all true men gave him gentleness therefor.
“Whale away at ’em then, an’ kip clear o’ Lou. He’ll get his knife into you if he can.”
“I jes wanted ter take the hosses out’r the rain,” explained Buck, and rode on.
But Lou was looking for stronger meat that day. There was Douglas to pay for words said some hours back. And, by the nature of a man, he cannot forgive evil truth, though the evil of lies may not touch him.
To the heel of the day they worked; soaked and rain-beat; riding each man with his life in the hand that carried his rein, and watching eternally for the spear-glint of horns and the skin-flash through loose bush and crowding manuka.
Near sunset, when the storm gave to a scarlet evening of blown clouds and clucking wind, Lou found his chance and took it. Where a humped spur ran clear into the western sky Jimmie cautiously wheeled his mob, bringing them back, slow-paced. Lou, on the breast of the hill above, looked down to see deep gullies either side the spur and the gleam of rock- -
