ing a horse
that strenuously refused to be conquered and as they looked on the
animal threw himself.

"Like that? Well, no--not precisely," Harris said. "They're not
breaking horses. They're proving that they're bronc-peelers that can
ride 'em before they're broke. A horse started out that way will be a
bronc till the day he dies. The first thing he knows some straddler
swarms him and hangs the spurs in him. He bogs his head and starts out
to slip his pack--and from right then on he thinks the first thing to
do whenever a man steps up on him is to try his best to shake him off."

Three men were lashing their bed rolls and war bags on three pack
horses and when this task was completed they rode down the lane, each
one leading his pack animal. Harris knew this as evidence that they
would start after the calves on the following day. The custom was to
exchange representatives to ride with each wagon within a reasonable
distance, the reps to look after the interest of the brand for which
they rode.

"How many reps do you trade?" he asked.

"Three," she said. "Halfmoon D, V L and with Slade."

The Halfmoon D lay some fifteen miles eastward along the foot of the
hills; the V L the same distance to the west, but cached away in a
pocket that led well back into the base of the range, a comparatively
small outfit owned by the Brandons, father and four sons, who made
every effort to keep the bulk of their cows ranging in their own home
basin and exchanged reps only with the Three Bar.

Slade's home place lay forty miles south and a little west and his cows
grazed for over a hundred miles, requiring three wagons to cover his
range.

During the afternoon the three reps came in to replace the men who had
left. The surplus horses had been cut out and thrown back on the
range, only those required for the remuda remaining in the pasture lot.
The chuck wagon was wheeled before the cookhouse door and packed for an
early start. Before the first streaks of dawn the men had saddled and
breakfasted. It was turning gray in the east when four horses,
necessitating the attentions of four men, were hooked to the wagon. A
man hung on the bit of each wheel horse while another grasped the bits
of the lead team as Waddles made one last hasty trip inside.

"This will be a rocky ride for a mile or two," he prophesied, as he
mounted the seat and braced himself. "These willow-tails haven't had
on a strap of harness for many a month