They owned plenty of horses, and they would go from ranch to ranch with this machine, and thresh the grain.

Now, this threshing-time being of short duration, it drew into it men whose occupations were entirely different at other times of the year.

Hence, the bartenders, hold-up men, cowpunchers--whom it would be fatal to ask where they came from--the blacksmiths, and the store-keepers.
Gil Steele had been at the Bar O, so Whitey was known to him, and he supposed that the boy had come merely to see the show.

So Gil was rather surprised, the next morning, when Whitey asked for a job for himself and for Injun.
"What do you want to work for ?" Steele demanded.

"Your father's got plenty o' money." Whitey's real reason was that he wanted to be among the men to watch Dorgan, but he equivocated--which is a pretty way of saying that he told a white lie.
"Bill Jordan thinks I'm a softy," Whitey replied.