Page:Patches (1928).pdf/107

 seasonable and when it tunes up in this way we're always sure to catch something."

"Why, I think it's just great," returned Larry. "We won't have to have any camp fire to sleep by to-night."

"Wal, perhaps you're right," returned Bill, "I hope so."

A few minutes later Larry's three friends went to take up their night watch while he rolled up in his blankets to sleep.

In what seemed an incredibly short time his uncle was shaking him by the shoulder telling him to get up as it was their watch.

"I don't like the feel of things," remarked Uncle Henry as they jogged around to their position. "Perhaps it's going to be all right but it is terribly sultry and I wish it was twenty degrees cooler."

It was much darker this night then it had been the nights previous so Larry gave Patches his head most of the way. About all he could do was to keep him close up to the herd and this he was able to do by the sound of the milling cattle.

As the hours wore on, it grew darker and darker and still more muggy, and though it was strangely still sound seemed to carry a long way. He could distinctly hear the sound of Old Baldy's hoofs fifty rods away as his uncle rode up and down the line.

It must have been about five o'clock, the danger