A dusty motor-car climbed the long road leading up to the Neuman ranch.  It was not far from Wade, a small hamlet of the wheat-growing section, and the slopes of the hills, bare and yellow with waving grain, bore some semblance to the Bend country.  Four men—­a driver and three cowboys—­were in the automobile.

A big stone gate marked the entrance to Neuman’s ranch.  Cars and vehicles lined the roadside.  Men were passing in and out.  Neuman’s home was unpretentious, but his barns and granaries and stock-houses were built on a large scale.

“Bill, are you goin’ in with me after this pard of the Kaiser’s?” inquired Jake, leisurely stretching himself as the car halted.  He opened the door and stiffly got out.  “Gimme a hoss any day fer gittin’ places!”

“Jake, my regard fer your rep as Anderson’s foreman makes me want to hug the background,” replied Bill.  “I’ve done a hell of a lot these last forty-eight hours.”

“Wal, I reckon you have, Bill, an’ no mistake....  But I was figgerin’ on you wantin’ to see the fun.”

“Fun!...  Jake, it ‘ll be fun enough fer me to sit hyar an’ smoke in the shade, an’ watch fer you to come a-runnin’ from thet big German devil....  Pard, they say he’s a bad man!”

“Sure.  I know thet.  All them Germans is bad.”

“If the boss hadn’t been so dog-gone strict about gun-play I’d love to go with you,” responded Bill.  “But he didn’t give me no orders.  You’re the whole outfit this round-up.”

“Bill, you’d have to take orders from me,” said Jake, coolly.

“Sure.  Thet’s why I come with Andy.”

The other cowboy, called Andy, manifested uneasiness, and he said:  “Aw, now, Jake, you ain’t a-goin’ to ask me to go in there?...  An’ me hatin’ Germans the way I do!”

“Nope.  I guess I’ll order Bill to go in an’ fetch Neuman out,” replied Jake, complacently, as he made as if to re-enter the car.

Bill collapsed in his seat.  “Jake,” he expostulated, weakly, “this job was given you because of your rep fer deploomacy....  Sure I haven’t none of thet....  An’ you, Jake, why you’re the smoothest an’ slickest talker thet ever come to the Northwest.”

Evidently Jake had a vulnerable point.  He straightened up with a little swagger.  “Wal, you watch me,” he said.  “I’ll fetch the big Dutchman eatin’ out of my hand....  An’ say, when we git him in the car an’ start back let’s scare the daylights out of him.”

“Thet’d be powerful fine.  But how?”

“You fellers take a hunch from me,” replied Jake.  And he strode off up the lane toward the ranch-house.

Jake had been commissioned to acquaint Neuman with the fact that recent developments demanded his immediate presence at “Many Waters.”  The cowboy really had a liking for the job, though he pretended not to.