noon
Of the other horsemen who had come up the bluff with the cattle , he saw not a sign . So the man yawned and went in to his breakfast . Many times that day he stood at the corner of his shack with the glasses sweeping the bench-land . Toward noon the cattle drifted into a coulee where there was water . In a couple of hours they drifted leisurely back upon high ground and scattered to their feeding , still watched and tended by the two horsemen who looked the most harmless of individuals . One was fat and red-faced and spent at least half of his time lying prone upon some slope in the shade of his horse . The other was thin and awkward , and slouched in the saddle or sat upon the ground with his knees drawn up and his arms clasped loosely around them , a cigarette dangling upon his lower lip , himself the picture of boredom .