B M Bower

The Phantom Herd B M Bower

If you are at all curious over the name to which Luck Lindsay answered unhesitatingly, -his veryacceptance of it proving his willingness to be so identified, -I can easily explain. Some nicknameshave their origin in mystery; there was no mystery at all surrounding the name men had bestowedupon Lucas Justin Lindsay. In the first place, his legal cognomen being a mere pandering to thevanity of two grandfathers who had no love for each other and so must both be mollified, never hadappealed to Luck or to any of his friends. Luck would have been grateful for any nickname thatwould have wiped Lucas Justin from the minds of men. But the real reason was a quirk in Luck'sphilosophy of life. Anything that he greatly desired to see accomplished, he professed to leave tochance. He would smile his smile, and lift his shoulders in the Spanish way he had learned in Mexicoand the Philippines, and say: "That's as luck will have it. Quien sabe?" Then he would straightway goabout bringing the thing to pass by his own dogged efforts. Men fell into the habit of calling himLuck, and they forgot that he had any other name; so there you have it, straight and easilyunderstandable. As luck would have it, then, -and no pun intended, please, -he found himself en route to Dry Lakewithout any trouble at all; a mere matter of one change of trains and very close connections, theconductor told him. So Luck went out and found a chair on the observation platform, and gavehimself up to his cigar and to contemplation of the country they were gliding through. What hewould find at Dry Lake to make the stop worth his while did not worry him; he left that to thefuture and to the god Chance whom he professed to serve. He was doing his part; he was goingthere to find out what the place held for him. If it held nothing but a half dozen ex-cow-punchershopelessly tamed and turned farmers, why, there would probably be a train to carry him further inhis quest. He would drop down into Wyoming and Arizona and New Mexico, -just keep going tillhe did find the men he wanted. That was Luck's