The afternoon sun had started its long swing down toward the horizon when Billy spotted the dust from the herd. He stopped long enough to wipe the sweat and dust from his face, then eased the mouse across the fiat to where the two point riders were urging the leaders away from the spotty bunch grass that grew along the trail. Joe Metcalf was the first to spot him and came riding over.
“Lordy, Condo, I thought you’d fell asleep under a mesquite bush! Where the hell you been? We’d begun to think...”
Billy grinned at him. “I didn’t aim to be gone so long, Joe,” he said laconically, “but it took me longer than I expected to locate a troop of cavalry. And now that I have, I think I’ll curl up in the bed wagon and catch...”
Joe turned to Thad Harper who had just come up. “The heat’s plumb got
