em to dodge, Slade's rep
slipped his rope on her, jumped his horse off at an angle and brought
her down.

Evans pointed to where Harris, seated on the big pinto, was working
slowly through the center of the herd.

"He's gone in after another slick," Evans said. "Watch the paint-horse
work."

Calico was moving after the animal Harris wanted, working easily and
without a single sharp rush that would cause undue disturbance among
the cows.

"A good cow horse is like a hound," Lanky observed. "Let him spot the
critter you're wanting and nothing can shake him off."

Calico followed a serpentine course through the mass, crowded a
three-year-old to the edge and cut him out. The animal attempted to
dodge back among his fellows but the paint-horse turned as on a pivot
and blocked him, then started him off in a straightaway run.

"There's a real rope-horse," Lanky said. "I've been noticing him work.
Look!"

Calico had braced himself as the slick was roped, shoving his hind feet
out ahead, squatting on his haunches and raising his forefeet almost
clear of the ground.

"Cal broke him without shoes in front," Evans explained. "His feet got
tender after he'd jerked a steer or two and he learned to sock his hind
feet ahead and take the jar on them. He'll last two years longer that
way. A horse that takes all the weight on his front feet in jerking
heavy stuff soon gets stove up in the shoulders and has to be
condemned. This Cal Harris has one whole bagful of knowing tricks."

He rode back to the work after this endorsement of her choice of a
foreman.

Through all the turmoil the nighthawk slept peacefully in the shade of
a sage-clump. Waddles dozed in the wagon but suddenly came to life
with a start and signaled to the wrangler who, in his turn, waved an
arm to the man nearest him. The four wagon horses were roped and
harnessed while Waddles loaded the bed rolls on the tailgate and lashed
them fast. The rope corral was dismantled and loaded. The chuck wagon
veered past the herd and lumbered up the valley and the wrangler and
one other followed with the horse herd.

In a short space of time the herd had been worked, the last calf
branded, and Harris led the men up the bottoms. As they rode each one
reported the brands of all stock which he had let break away from his
bunch before reaching the herd. Each rep entered the number and kind
of his own brand so reported to the former tally taken of the herd.

Fi