etch of land north, east, south, and west of the bottom on which
the home ranch stood.

"You claim so much land each way," Sylvane explained to a tenderfoot a
long time after, "according to how many cattle you have. For instance,
if you have one hundred head of cattle, you don't require very much
range; if you have a thousand head, you need so much more. There
wouldn't be any sense of one man trying to crowd his cattle onto your
range and starve out both outfits. So each man claims as much land as
he needs. Of course, that doesn't mean that the other fellow doesn't
get over on your range--that's the reason we brand our cattle; it
simply means that a certain given number of cattle will have a certain
given amount of grazing land. Our cattle may be on the other fellow's
range and some of his may be on our range, but he'll claim so much
land each way and we'll claim so much land each way, and then it
doesn't make any difference if they do get on each other's territory,
so long as there is enough grazing for the two outfits."

The range claimed by the "Maltese Cross outfit" extended northward to
the river-crossing above Eaton's "Custer Trail Ranch," and southward
to the crossing just below what was known as "Sloping Bottom,"
covering a territory that had a frontage of four miles on both sides
of the river and extended back on each side for thirty miles to the
heads of the creeks which emptied into the Little Missouri.

[Illustration: Merrifield.]

[Illustration: Sylvane Ferris.]

[Illustration: The Maltese Cross ranch-house as it was when Roosevelt
lived in it.]

The cattle, Roosevelt found, were looking sleek and well-fed. He
had lost about twenty-five head during the winter, partly from the
cold, partly from the attacks of wolves. There were, he discovered, a
hundred and fifty fine calves.

A new cowpuncher had been added to the Maltese Cross outfit, he found,
since the preceding autumn. It was George Myers, whom he had met on
the ride down the river from Lang's. Roosevelt had purchased five
hundred dollars' worth of barbed wire and George was digging
post-holes. He was a boyish and attractive individual whom the
_wanderlust_ had driven westward from his home in Wisconsin. His
honesty fairly leaped at you out of his direct, clear eyes.

Roosevelt spent two days contemplating his new possessions. At the end
of the second he had reached a decision, and he announced it promptly.
He told Sylvane and Merrifield to ge