ve miles up the valley, at the spot where Harris had crossed it a few
hours before, they found the wagon waiting at the new stand, the corral
refashioned and the remuda inside it. It was but ten o'clock but the
first circle had commenced at four. The noon meal on the round-up was
served whenever the first circle was completed. The men fell
ravenously on the hot meal, changed to fresh circle horses and started
again.

It was falling dusk when the herd gathered in the third circle had been
worked and the last calf branded for the day. The men had unsaddled
and spread their bed rolls before Waddles had announced the meal. The
nighthawk came riding up on the horse he had picketed prior to going to
sleep before sunup at the first stand. His bed roll was lashed on a
half-wild range horse he had roped and it sagged to one side, having no
pack saddle to keep it from slipping, and he spoke in no gentle terms
of an outfit that would pull out without troubling to throw his pack
saddle from the wagon or taking pains to picket an extra horse. His
fretfulness passed, however, as he smelled the hot coffee and he
repaired to the wagon, his ill humor dissipated.

There was no music that night, every man retiring to his bed roll the
instant he finished his meal.

At the end of the first week out from the ranch Harris pulled up his
horse beside the girl's and showed her his tally book.

"We've run Slade's mark on more calves than we have our own," he said.
"That's one way he works."

"But that's not his fault and it doesn't mean anything," she said.
"His cows are sure to drift. This first strip we've worked is the
southernmost edge of our range and his north wagon works the strip
right south of us. We're sure to find a number of his cows. As we
double back on our next lap we'll not find the same proportion."

"Not quite--but plenty," he predicted. "We've marked more calves for
Slade in one week than all his three wagon crews will mark for the
Three Bar in a year. The first three weeks of each season your men do
a little more work for Slade than they do for you. It's a safe bet
that the Halfmoon D does the same, and so on through every brand that
joins his range. That puts him way off ahead."

"But that is pure accident," she said.

"It's pure design," he stated. "His boys are busy shoving his cows
from the middle all ways so that when fall comes he has a good inside
block that's only been lightly fed over. They fa