The Holbrook news., 1922-06-23
FOREWORc

The driver of the big car thrOttled down. Since he had swung away from the dusty road to follow a wagon track across the desert, the speedom- eter had registered many miles. His eyes searched the ground in front to see whether the track led up the brow of the hill or dipped into the sandy wash.
 On the breeze there fioated to him the faint, insistent bawl of thirsty cattle. The car leaped forward again, climbed the hill, and closed in upon remuda of horses watched by two wranglers.
 The chauffeur stopped the machine and shouted question at the nearest rider, who swung his mount and can tered up. He was lean, tanned youth In overalls, jumper, wide sombrero, high-heeled boots, and shiny leather chaps. A girl in the tonneau appraised with quick. eager eyes this horseman of the plains. Perhaps she found him less picturesque than she had hoped. He was not there for moving-picture purposes. Nothing on horse or man held it's place for any reason except utility.
 "where's the round up?" asked the driver.
 The coffee brown youth gave little lift of his head to the right. He was apparently a man of few words.
 The car moved forward to the edge of the mesa and dropped Into the val ley. The girl in the back seat gave a little scream of delight. Here at last was the West she had read about in books and seen on the screen.
 This was Cattlelands hour of hours. The parada grounds were occupied by two circles of cattle, each fenced by eight or ten horsemen. The nearer one was the beef herd, beyond this and closer to the mouth of the canyon from which they had all recently been driven-was mass of closely packed COWS and calves.
 Several men were busy branding and marking the calves dragged to them from the herd by the horsemen who were roping the frightened little biat- ters.
 With movement of her wrist the girl opened the door and stepped down from the car.
 A man sitting beside the chauffeur turned In his seat You'd better stay where you are. honey" He had an idea that this was not exactly the scene a girl of seventeen ought to see at close range
 T want to get the kinks out of my muscles. Dad" the girl called back. '-I'll not go far"
 She walked along a ridge that ran from the mesa into the valley like an Outstretched tongue. There was a touch of unstudied jauntiness in the way the tips of her golden curls es- caped from beneath the little brown toque she wore. A young man guard ing the beef herd watched her curi- ously. Something in the poise of the light, bOyish figure struck spark from his imagination.
 As she stood on the spit of the.ridye a slim, light figure silhouetted against the skyline, the young man guarding the beef herd called something to her that was lost in the bawling of the cattle. From the motion of his hand she knew that he was telling her to get back to the car. But the girl saw no reason for obeying the orders of range-rider she had never seen before and never expected to see again. No body had ever told her that a rider is fairly safe among the widest hill cat tie. but a man on foot is liable to at tack at any time when 4 herd is ex- cited.
 A shout of warning startled her. Above the believing of the herd she heard another yell.
 "Hi-yi-ya-aw
 A red-eyed steer, tail up, was crash ing through the small brush toward the branders. There was a wild scur- " for safety. The men dropped iron and ropes and fled to their saddles. De fiected by pursuers, the animal turned. By chance it thundered straight for the girl on the sand spit.
 She stood paralyzed for a moment. Out of the gathering darkness a voice came to her sharp and clear. Don't novel" It rang so vibrant with crisp command that the girl. poised for