Strangely enough, very few believed that Patches' purpose in working as a cowboy for the Dean was simply to earn an honest livelihood.

They felt instinctively--as, in fact, did Phil and the Dean--that there was something more beneath it all than such a commonplace.
Nick Cambert, who, with Yavapai Joe, rode in the rodeo, carefully avoided the stranger.

But Patches, by his persistent friendly interest in the Tailholt Mountain man's follower, added greatly to the warmth of the discussions and conjectures regarding himself.

The rodeo had reached the Pot-Hook-S Ranch, with Jim Reid in charge, when the incident occurred which still further stimulated the various opinions and suggestions as to the new man's real character and mission.
They were working the cattle that day on the rodeo ground just outside the home ranch corral.

Phil and Curly were cutting out some Cross-Triangle steers, when the riders, who were holding the cattle, saw them separate a nine-months-old calf from the herd, and start it, not toward the cattle they had already cut out, but toward the corral.
Instantly everybody knew what had happened.
The cowboy nearest the gate did not need Phil's word to open it for his neighbor next in line to drive the calf inside.
Not a word was said until the calves to be branded were also driven into the corral.