He knew that his rise
would be sudden and that his fall would be great. Still, he sported
the habiliments of a full-fledged buckaroo, and he would have to live
up to them. A man who could not sit the hurricane-deck of a pitching
horse was of little use to the ranch. In the busy season each man
caught up his string of ponies and rode them as he needed them. There
was neither time nor disposition to choose.
Pete wished that Blue Smoke had a little more of Rowdy's equable
disposition. It was typical of Pete, however, that he absolutely hated
to leave an unpleasant task to an indefinite future. Moreover, he
rather liked the Concho boys and the foreman. He wanted to ride with
them. That was the main thing. Any hesitancy he had in regard to
riding the outlaw was the outcome of discretion rather than of fear.
Bailey had said there was no work for him. Pete felt that he had
rather risk his neck a dozen times than to return to the town of Concho
and tell Roth that he had been unsuccessful in getting work. Yet Pete
did not forget his shrewdness. He would bargain with the foreman.
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