gain her promise. His luggage had
been sent ahead in a buckboard, for the dance was to be an all-night
affair and he would leave on the morning stage.

There were but few horses at the hitch rails when they reached the post
but a dozen voices raised in song drifted faintly to their ears and
apprised them of the fact that other arrivals were not far behind. As
the Three Bar girl entered at the head of her men she saw Bentley and
Carpenter leaning against the bar, well toward the rear of the room.

Within the last week she had heard that Carp, after being let off by
Harris, had started up a brand of his own down in Slade's range.
Harris's remarks about Slade's mode of acquiring new brands recurred to
her,--that he fostered some small outfit for a few seasons, then bought
it out. As the men scattered she commented on this to Harris. The
Three Bar foreman nodded.

"Likely the same old move," he said. "I've been trying to get a line
on Carp. He started off with a bill of sale from Slade for a hundred
head of Three Bar rebrands. But it didn't come direct from Slade at
that. Morrow engineered the deal. Said he came into the paper for two
years' back pay from Slade; last year and the one before--had figured
to start up for himself and was to draw his pay in cows. The paper is
dated at the time Morrow quit Slade last year. What can we prove wrong
with that? Morrow simply sells the paper to Carp. Of course it's a
plant. All Carp has to do is to run Slade's Triangle on the hips of
any number of Three Bar she-stock. Like I told you, there's no way to
check Slade up on the number of our rebrands. If Carp gets caught it's
his own hard luck."

A dozen men from the Halfmoon D swarmed in the door. Mrs. McVey, the
owner's wife, stationed herself in one corner with the Three Bar girl
while the men gravitated to the bar.

"I'll take Deane in tow for a while," Harris said. "And get him
acquainted with folks." He led Deane to the bar and gave him scraps of
the history of various neighbors as they arrived.

Harper's men came in, the albino standing half a head taller than any
other on the floor, and they mingled with the rest as if their records
were the most immaculate of the lot. Two of Slade's foremen arrived
with their families. The wife of one was lean and bent, worn from
years of drudgery. The other was an ample, red-cheeked woman of great
self-confidence, her favorite pose that of planting both hands on her