They reached the corrals, and Joe deposited his burden upon the wooden wall. Then he turned sharply on his companion.
"Wal, out wi' it, man," he demanded. "Guess you got something you're wantin' to git off'n your chest."
Tresler laughed softly. "You're pretty sharp, Joe."
"Pretty sharp, eh?" returned the little man. "Say, it don't need no razor to cut through the meanin' of a 'tenderfoot.' Wal?"
Tresler was looking up at the saddle. It was a small, almost skeleton saddle, such as, at one time, was largely used in Texas; that was before the heavier and more picturesque Mexican saddles came into vogue among the ranchmen.
"What does Jake want that for?" he asked.
His question was an idle one, and merely put for the sake of gaining time while he arrived at a definite decision upon the other matter.
"Guess it's fer some feller to ride to-morrow--eh? Whew!"
The choreman broke off and whistled softly. Something had just occurred to him. He measured Tresler with his eye, and then looked at the short-seated saddle with its high cantle and tall, abrupt horn in front. He shook his head.
Tresler was not heeding him. Suddenly he stopped and sat on the ground, propping his back against the corral wall, while he looked up at Joe.
"Sit down," he said seriously; "I've got something rather particular I want to talk about. At least, I think it's particular, being a stranger to the country."
Without replying, Joe deposited himself on the ground beside his new acquaintance. His face was screwed up into the expression Tresler had begun to recognize as a smile. He took a chew of tobacco and prepared to give his best attention.
"Well, look here, have we any near neighbors?"
"None nigher than Forks--'cep' the Breeds, an' they're nigh on six mile south, out toward the hills. How?"
Then Tresler told him what he had seen at the edge of the pinewoods, and the choreman listened with careful attention. At the end of his story Tresler added--
"You see, it's probably nothing. Of course, I know nothing as yet of prairie ways and doings. No doubt it can be explained. But I argued the matter out from my own point of view, and it struck me that two horsemen, approaching the ranch under cover of the forest and a dark night, and not venturing into the open after having arrived, simply didn't want to be seen. And their not wishing to be seen meant that their object in coming wasn't--well, just above suspicion."