as she noted this. Bangs and Foster had
returned for their second season at the Three Bar. All through the
previous summer the boy had evidenced his silent adoration, his eyes
following her every move.

The scene round Billie was one of strenuous activity, every effort bent
toward whipping the remuda into shape for the calf round-up in the
least possible space of time.

Every rider must have nine horses in his string. His five circle
horses needed but little training, the only necessary qualifications
being endurance and a sufficient amount of breaking to make it possible
to saddle them; the two night mounts must be partially broken to work
the herd, then switched to night guarding and thereafter used
exclusively for that. But the two cow horses required long and skilful
training. Every man gave one of his circle string the preliminary
training of the cow horse each season, the work resumed by the man to
whose string the horse was allotted the following year; thus new ones
were coming on to replace the older horses as fast as they were
condemned.

Four pairs of men worked within a hundred yards of the girl, taking
equal turns at riding and wrangling. The one who wrangled put his rope
on a horse and led him out, snubbed him to the saddle horn and
frequently eared him as well, while the one who was to ride him out
cinched on his saddle and mounted.

Green horses were led out, one after another, to be saddled for the
first time, and those previously broken required a few work-outs to
knock the wire edge off their unwillingness to carry a rider after a
winter of freedom on the range.

Three men were shoeing horses tied to snubbing posts at ten-yard
intervals before the shop. One animal that had fought viciously
against this treatment had been thrown and stretched, his four feet
roped to convenient posts, and while he struggled and heaved on the
ground Rile Foster calmly fitted and nailed the shoes on him. Cal
Harris finished shoeing the colt he was working.

"That's the last touch," he said. "My string is all set to go."

"You have five colts gentled for your circle bunch," she said. "But
you didn't pick a single cow horse. The boys have sorted out the best
ones and the few that are left won't answer for a man that insists on a
gentled string."

"Creamer and Calico will do for me," he said. "I broke them myself and
maybe I can worry along."

"Did you break them like that?" she asked. Bangs was topp