e, the remuda milling round the big pasture lot and a
number of men moving among the buildings. The calf round-up was over.

The Three Bar men viewed the freighters curiously as they swung the
mule teams in front of the blacksmith shop, noted the rifle in the
hands of each guard and the second one in easy reach of each driver.
They knew what this portended.

The freighters had stripped off the wagon-sheet lashed across the top
of each load and the Three Bar men moved casually toward the wagons,
curious to view the contents.

"You boys get to knowing each other," Harris said. "These
mule-skinners will be hanging out at the Three Bar from now on."

The short man, known as Russet, removed his hat and scratched his head
reflectively as he studied the first move in unloading his wagon.
Moore promptly uncovered his own head and revealed his brilliant red
shock of hair, his freckled face breaking into a genial grin.

"Hello, you red-hot little devil," he greeted. "I'm glad some one has
turned up with redder hair than mine. Brother--shake!"

Russ looked him over carefully.

"Don't you claim no relationship with me, you sorrel hyena," he said.
"I won't stand it for a holy second. Get a move on and help me snatch
off this load."

All down the line the Three Bar men were getting acquainted with the
freighters, introductions effected in much the same manner as that
between Russet and Moore. A thousand pounds of oats were tossed from
the top of the first wagon and when the concealing sacks were cleared
away there were three heavy plows showing underneath, the spaces
between them filled with shining coils of fence wire. The second load
consisted of a dismantled drill, a crate of long-handled shovels, and
more barbed wire; the third held a rake and a mowing machine, more
wire, kegs of fence staples and a dozen forks.

"The Three Bar will be the middle point of a cyclone," Moore prophesied
as he viewed the implements. "Just as soon as this leaks out."

"We fetched our cyclone openers with us," Russ assured him. "Let her
buck."

From the cook-shack door the girl viewed these preparations, then
turned her eyes to the flat and visioned it with a carpet of rippling
hay.

There was a clatter of hoofs and a rattling of gravel as five horsemen
put their sure-footed mounts down the steep slope two hundred yards
back of the house and followed along the fence of the corral. The five
Brandons had cut across the shoulder o