“You durned old idiot!  It’s a wonder you ain’t dead three ways for Sunday,” he shouted joyfully at sight of him.  “Ain’t I told you ’steen times to do what bathin’ you got to do, right here in the shack?”

The Texan laughed again.  Naked as that of Father Adam, his splendid body was glowing with the bath and the exercise.

“He’s ce’tainly the worst chump ever, Alec.  Had me in sight all the way down to the creek, but waited till I wasn’t moving.  Reckon he was nervous.  Anyhow, he waited just one-tenth of a second too late.  Shot just as I leaned forward for my dive.  He gave me a free hair-cut though.”

A swath showed where the bullet had mowed a furrow of hair so close that in one place it had slightly torn the scalp.

“He shot again, didn’t he?”

“Yep.  I swam along the far bank, so that he couldn’t get at me, and crossed into the aspens.  He got another chance as I was crossing, but he had to take it on the fly, and missed.”

The cattleman surveyed the hillside cautiously through the front window.  “I reckon he’s pulled his freight, most likely.  But we’ll stay cooped for a while, on the chance.  You’re the luckiest cuss I ever did see.  More lives than a cat.”

Howard laid his revolver down within reach, and proceeded to light a fire in the stove, from which rose presently the pleasant odors of aromatic coffee and fried ham and eggs.

“Come and get it, Steve,” said Howard, by way of announcing breakfast.  “No, you don’t.  I’ll take the window seat, and at that we’ll have the curtain drawn.”

They were just finishing breakfast when Siegfried cantered up.

“You bane ready, Steve?” he called in.

Howard appeared in the doorway.  “Say, Sig, go down to the corral and saddle up Teddy for Steve, will you?  Some of his friends have been potshotting at him again.  No damage done, except to my feelings, but there’s nothing like being careful.”

Siegfried’s face darkened.  “Ay bane like for know who it vas?”

Howard laughed.  “Now, if you’ll tell Steve that he’ll give you as much as six bits, Sig.  He’s got notions, but they ain’t worth any more than yours or mine.  Say, where you boys going to-day?  I’ve a notion to go along.”

“Oh, just out for a little pasear,” Steve answered casually.  “Thought you were going to work on your south fence to-day.”

“Well, I reckon I better.  It sure needs fixing.  You lads take good care of yourselves.  I don’t need to tell you not to pass anywhere near the run, Sig,” he grinned, with the manner of one giving a superfluous warning.

Fraser looked at Siegfried, with a smile in his eyes.  “No, we’ll not pass the run to-day, Alec.”

A quarter of an hour later they were in the saddle and away.  Siegfried did not lead his friend directly up the cañon that opened into Jack Rabbit Run, but across the hills to a pass, which had to be taken on foot.  They left the horses picketed on a grassy slope, and climbed the faint trail that went steeply up the bowlder-strewn mountain.