Evening star., 1934-11-04

Trevis hoisted . weary thumb-to no
avail. All he got from the blue sedan was .
gust Of wind.
"Okay partner" said Buck good -naturedly,
waving his hand. "In walk"
To most men in Bucks boots there would
have seemed small cause for good humor.
They happened to be COW boots. speaking liter
ally, and not even Buck Trevis, who had worn
them since he was 10, had ever actually realized
that they weren't made for the long trek.
For getting q hold in the broad stirrup yes.
And for walks from the bunk house to the
barn, perhaps Even for short jaunts along a
wavy plain they were practical But for max
ing tracks on sun-gooey asphalt. or the slither-
ing pebbles alongside highway-never.
mo two ways about it," Buck told himself,
"cow bootsre not for walking
But he remained good-natured. There was
no particular reason for this, except that it
was Bucks natural way. In the first place. he
was broke. All he possessed was the outfit he
wore-tweed pants stuffed into the boots q
leather jacket a flannel shirt and a 10-gallon
hat. The fact that he did not have q pack Of
tailor made cigarettes was only minor tragedy.
He didn't even own ''the makin's." And crown
ing ignominy of all, he was afoot.
. IDING aboard notorious had been bad
" enough-but now Buck wished his ticket
hadn't run out back at Weston. For Weston
was good % miles of pavement from Pendle-
ton that mecca for all good cowboys and may
be q dozen or so bad ones whenever the Au-
tumn rolls around. Buck himself hadn't at
tended q Pendleton roundup for q long time
now Once he had won the silver fitted round
up saddle-but nobody would remember that
now
"I probably couldn't stay on q merry-go-
round Buck told himself cheerfully. "A COW
hands got no business fooling around dude
Ia hnrod viOlnptlv that
nobody would discover he'd been with the
Circle-M Dude Ranch of Jasper, Wyo. My
gosh if Bill Tompkns, from over Touchet way.
knew thatl Or if Kidney Wells had come up
from Texas for the roundup and got wind
Of it
Buck preferred to think these possibilities re-
mote Looking back on it now, he wondered how
he had ever signed up with the CircleM Dude
Ranch outfit. OF course, the pay was good, and
certainly the work was easy, and it was nice to
have a swell-looking dame say, "Oh, Mr.. Trevis.
do you suppose I'll ever be able to ride as well
as you?"
Suddenly Buck stopped, picked up a handful
of pebbles from the side of the road and hurled
them at a tree. The trouble was that whenever
he thought of swell-looking danes in general
he would always think of one swell-looking
dame in particular.
"Why don't you admit it?" he asked himself
"Why don't you admit she had you a-hangin'
onto the horn and pullin' leather? Why don't
you admit the only reason you left the Circle-M
was because she didn't show up this season."
Malevolently Buck glared at the tree which had
just received the volley Of pebbles eyes, and
you might well admit too, that you're broke
because you went on a 40o-do[ar spree trying
to forget her!"
But apparently the tree was in no mood to
admit anything and Buck resumed his way.
Behind him he heard the approaching roar Of
another car, but this time he made no effort to
signal it.
"I'll just go to Pendleton on foot" he NUT
tered philosophically. "The walk ought to do
me some good. I'm soft I'm . dude cowboy,
and when step onto the sawdust those broncs
won't buck when try to get aboard. They'll
probably just laugh out loud"
But Buck Trevis didn't really believe this.
II he had really believed it he wouldn't have
ben heading toward Pendelton. broke and