fter
he had been in the Bad Lands six weeks] strikes the bare
sides of the Buttes and comes down on the treeless bottoms
hot enough to make a Rattlesnake pant. If you can get in the
shade there is most always a breeze. The grand trouble is
you can't get in the shade. There's no shade to get into and
the great sandy Desert is cool compared with some of the
gulches, but as you ride it is not quite so bad. The Ponys
when they are up to some trick are lively and smart, all
other times they are tired, are very tame and look very meek
and gentle. But just let one of them get the start of you in
any way and you are left. Am glad to say mine has never
really got the start yet. We have had a number of
differences and controverseys, but my arguments have always
prevailed so far.

About the middle of September, the two backwoodsmen moved down to
Elkhorn Bottom, leaving Robins in charge of the cattle. Dow went away
on a round-up and Sewall undertook to put in livable shape a dugout
that stood on the river-bank some thirty or forty yards from the place
which Roosevelt had, on a previous visit, selected as the site for the
ranch-house which Sewall and Dow were to build. The shack had belonged
to a hunter who had left the country, and was not sumptuous in its
fittings.

[Illustration: Roosevelt's brands.

CHIMNEY BUTTE RANCH.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, Proprietor.
FERRIS & MERRIFIELD, Managers.

P. O. address, Little Missouri, D. T. Range, Little Missouri, 8 miles
south of railroad.

[brand drawing] as in cut on left hip and right side, both or either,
and down cut dewlap.

Horse brand, [brand drawing] on left hip.

ELKHORN RANCH.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, Proprietor.
SEAWALL & DOW, Managers.

P. O. address, Little Missouri, D. T. Range, Little Missouri,
twenty-five miles north of railroad.

as in cut, [brand drawing] on left side, on right, [brand drawing]
or the reverse.

Horse brand, [brand drawing] on right or left shoulder.]

Dow returned from the round-up with interesting news. The Marquis, it
seemed, had by no means resigned his claim to the territory on which
Roosevelt had established "squatter's rights." Dow overheard one of
the Marquis's men confiding to another that "there'd be some dead men
round that Elkhorn shack some day."

Sewall received the news with calm satisfaction. "Well," he drawled,
"if there's going