But the work was done
finally, and the cattle turned out into the valley.
On the night that saw the finish of the branding, Calumet, Dade, and
Malcolm retired early. Betty and Bob remained in the kitchen for some
time, but finally they, too, went to bed.
At one second before midnight Calumet was sleeping soundly--as soundly
as it is possible for a man to sleep who has been working out of doors
and is physically tired. At exactly midnight he was wide awake, lying
on his back, looking with unblinking eyes at the ceiling, all his
senses aroused and alert, his nerves and muscles at a tension.
He did not know what had awakened him, though he was convinced that it
had been something strange and unusual. It had happened to him before;
several times when cattle had stampeded; once when a Mexican freighter
at a cow camp had rose in the night to slip his knife into a puncher
with whom he had had trouble during the day. Incidentally, except for
Calumet, the Mexican would have made his escape. It had happened to
him again when a band of horse thieves had attempted to run off some
stock; it had never happened unless something unusual was going on.
And so he was certain that something unusual was going on now, and he
lay still, looking around him, to make sure that what was happening was
not happening in his room.
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