Page:The Cow Jerry (1925).pdf/222

 "How many have you got in that herd?" Jim asked the Indian.

"Around five hundred and fifty head."

"Five hundred and fifty plunks!" said Hank, despairingly, as if he had seen a fortune swept away.

"Say, if you'll call it a dime a head we'll try to raise the money," Perry proposed.

The Indian was not concerned in the offer enough to reject it. He sat black, silent and sulky, hat pulled down to his eyebrows, his horse snatching a little doze as it stood in the warm morning sun.

"What're we goin' to do about it?" Hank asked his partner.

"I guess we just as well ride on south till we drop off of the earth," Perry replied, full of disgust with himself for allowing the cattle to get away, and gloom for his future peace in the ribald city of McPacken.

"You talk to him, Jim. Maybe he'll let 'em go for you," Hank appealed.

"I'm willin' to do you a friendly turn any way I can, boys, but this ain't a case for me to horn in. These boys stopped your stalk; custom of the country and the law of the land allows 'em to collect services and damages."

"Damages?" Perry repeated. "They never stepped on nothing down here but the earth."

"You've got to pay fifty cents a head for drivin' through the Cherokee Strip," said Jim.

"Well, we never drove through," Hank denied, with intense feeling.

"And that ain't no dream!" said Perry.