He seemed to be in something of a hurry now--if impatient movement meant anything--yet he did not leave the place at once.

He kept looking off there toward the southwest--off beyond Antelope Coulee and the sparsely dotted shacks of the settlers.
A smudge of smoke rose thinly there, behind a hill.

Unless one had been watching the place, one would scarcely have noticed it, but H.J.

Owens saw it at once and smiled his twisted smile and went running down the hill to where his horse was tied.

He mounted and rode down to the level, skirted the knoll and came out on the trail, down which he rode at an easy lope until he met the Kid.
The Kid was going to see Rosemary Allen and take a ride with her along the new fence; but he pulled up with the air of condescension which was his usual attitude toward "nesters," and in response to the twisted smile of H.J.Owens he grinned amiably.
"Want to go on a bear-hunt with me, Buck ?" began H.J.Owens with just the right tone of comradeship, to win the undivided attention of the Kid.
"I was goin' to ride fence with Miss Allen," the Kid declined regretfully.