Page:Caroline Lockhart--The Fighting Shepherdess.djvu/277

 sign of either herder! A cactus thorn that had pene- trated his shoe leather did not improve Bowers's temper. 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.

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 vis- ible, but as he got closer he saw Dibert's horse tied to the wheel. Bowers felt " hos-tile."

"What you doin' here?" he demanded unceremoni- ously, as Dibert, hearing the rocks rattle, all but tumbled out of the wagon in his eagerness.

" I never was so tickled to see anybody in my life I " he cried.

" I'm about as pleased to see you as a stepmother wel- comin' home the first wife's children," Bowers replied, eyeing him coldly. ** You ain't answered my question."

The herder nodded towards the wagon :

" He's come down with somethin'. Clean off " — he touched his forehead — " I dassn't leave him."

Bowers immediately went into the wagon, where, after a look at the man mumbling on the bunk, he said laconi- cally :

" Tick bite."

The brown blotches, flushed forehead, and burning eyes told their own story.

As Bowers continued to look at the sick man, with his