eing laughed at. Jim looked squarely into his half-resentful eyes and
nodded.

"Those cattle they've just brought in are branded with my brand. You
know the brand. You helped me design it. '[double star].' And," he
added whimsically, "it's a mighty fine one for obliterating original
brands, now I come to study it."

But Dan turned sharply on the two men.

"Let's hear it," he said; and there was no pleasantness in his tone.

It was Joe Bloc who took the lead. Dutchy, though speaking the
language of the West freely enough, had, in moments of involved
explanation, still the Teutonic failing of involving the verb.

"You see, boss," said Joe, his eyes steadily fixed on the foreman's
unflinching face, "we got the news in Barnriff. We'd been out for nigh
four days, and we'd decided to ride in here to get fresh plugs. Ours
wus good an' done, an' we'd set 'em in Doc Crombie's barn, an' had got
over to the saloon for a feed."

"Feed?"

But Dan's sarcasm had no effect.

"That's how, boss. Wal, right in the bar was one of the '[diamond] P'
boys--one of old man Blundell's hands."

"Yes, yes."

"He'd got a tidy yarn, sure, an' seein' we was your hands, an' his
yarn was to do with your stock, he handed it to us with frills. He'd
just got in from the hills, wher' he'd been trailin'. He said he'd
run into Jim Thorpe's stock, tucked away in as nice a hollow of
sweet grass as you'd find this side of Kentucky. Wal, he hadn't no
suspicion, seein' whose beasties they were, an' he was for makin'
back. He'd started, he said, when somethin' struck him. Y'see he
guessed of a sudden it was a mighty big bunch for a ranch-foreman to
be running, an' ther' was such a heap o' half-bred Polled Angus
amongst 'em. Wal, seein' that kind was your specialty, he just
guessed he'd ride round 'em an' git a peek at the brands. Say, as he
said, the game was clear out at once. They'd every son-of-a-cow got
'[double star].' on 'em, but nigh haf wus re-brands _over an'
blottin' out the old one_. He got to work an' cut out an' roped
one o' them half-breeds, an' hevin' threw him, got down an looked
close. The original brand had been burned out, an' the '[double star]'
whacked deep over it. That's just all, boss. We got out an' brought
the bunch in--that is, them we knew belonged to the 'AZ's.'"

An ominous silence followed the finish of his story. The smile on
Jim's face seemed to be frozen and meaningless. Dan was staring
intently at his boots and fli