The Spider knew that he could make only one such raid, with any chance of success.  If he made a drive at all, it would be on a big scale.  The cattlemen would eventually trail the first stolen herd to his ranch.  True, they would not find it there.  He would see to it that the cattle were pushed across the border without delay.  But a second attempt would be out of the question.  The chief factor in the success of the scheme would be the prompt handling of the herd upon its arrival.  He had cowboys in his employ who would steal the cattle.  What he needed was a man whom he could rely upon to check the tally and turn the herd over to the agents of the Mexican soldiery and collect the money on the spot, while his cowboys guarded the herd from a possible raid by the Mexicans themselves.  He knew that should the northern ranchmen happen to organize quickly and in force, they would not hesitate to promptly lynch the raiders, burn his buildings, take all his horses worth taking, and generally put the ranch out of business.

Thus far the ranch had paid well as a sort of isolated clearing-house for The Spider’s vicarious accounts.  The cowboys who worked there were picked men, each of whom received a straight salary, asked no questions, and rode with a high-power rifle under his knee and a keen eye toward the southern ranches.

Pete, riding south, bore an unsigned letter from The Spider, with instructions to hand it to the foreman of “The Olla” and receive further instructions from that gentleman.  Pete knew nothing of the contemplated raid, The Spider shrewdly surmising that Pete would balk at the prospect of stealing cattle from his own countrymen.  And it was because of this very fact that The Spider had intrusted Pete—­by letter to the foreman—­with the even greater responsibility of receiving the money for the cattle and depositing it in a certain bank in El Paso.  Heretofore, such payments had been made to The Spider’s representative in that city—­the president of the Stockmen’s Security and Savings Bank—­who had but recently notified The Spider that he could no longer act in the capacity of agent on account of local suspicion, already voiced in the current newspapers.  Hereafter The Spider would have to deal directly with the Mexican agents.  And The Spider unhesitatingly chose Pete as his representative, realizing that Pete was shrewdly capable, fearless, and to be trusted.

Toward evening of the third day out of Showdown, Pete came upon a most unexpected barrier to his progress—­a wire fence stretching east and west; a seemingly endless succession of diminishing posts.  He estimated that there must he at least forty thousand acres under fence.  According to location, this was The Spider’s ranch—­the Olla—­Pete reined around and rode along the fence for a mile or so, searching for a gateway; but the taut barbed wire ran on and on, toward a sun that was rounding swiftly down to the western horizon.  He dismounted and pulled the staples from several lengths of wire until he had enough slack to allow the top wire to touch the ground.  He stood on the wires and jockeyed Blue Smoke across, tied him to a post, and tacked the wire back in place.