latte in Wyoming. Will you tackle the job?"

"A good soldier is always subject to orders," replied The Rebel with a
military salute. "If you have a herd for delivery in Wyoming, give me
the men and horses, and I'll put the cattle there if possible. You are
the commandant in the field, and I am subject to instructions."

"There's your remuda and outfit, then," said Lovell, pointing to the one
intended for Tolleston, "and you'll get a commissary at the ranch and go
into camp this evening. You'll get your herd in Nueces County, and
Jim will assist in the receiving. Any other little details will all be
arranged before you get away."

Calling for all the men in Tolleston's outfit, the two rode away for
that remuda. Shortly before the trouble arose, our employer instructed
those with the Buford cattle to take ten extra horses for each herd.
There were now over a hundred and forty head to be culled back, and
Sponsilier was entitled to ten of them. In order to be sure of our
numbers, we counted the remaining band, and Forrest and I trimmed them
down to two hundred and fifty-four head. As this number was too small to
be handled easily in the open, we decided to take them into the corrals
for the final division. After the culling back was over, and everything
had started for the ranch, to oblige Sponsilier, I remained behind and
helped him to retrim his remuda. Unless one knew the horses personally,
it was embarrassing even to try and pick ten of the best ones from the
overplus. But I knew many of them at first hand, and at Dave's request,
after picking out the extra ones, continued selecting others in exchange
for horses in his old band. We spent nearly an hour cutting back and
forth, or until we were both satisfied that his saddle stock could not
be improved from the material at hand.

The ranch headquarters were fully six miles from the round-up. Leaving
Sponsilier delighted with the change in his remuda, I rode to overtake
the undivided band which were heading for the ranch corrals. On coming
up with them, Forrest proposed that we divide the horses by a running
cut in squads of ten, and toss for choice. Once they were in the
corrals, this could have been easily done by simply opening a gate and
allowing blocks of ten to pass alternately from the main into smaller
inclosures. But I was expecting something like this from Quince, and had
entirely different plans of my own. Forrest and I were good friends, but
he was a foxy ra