Toomey's Friendship Is Tested 139
XIV Like Any Other Herder 156
XV One More Whirl 165
XVI Straws 175
XVII Extremes Meet 189
XVIII A Warning 207
XIX An Old, Old Friend 212
XX The Fork of the Road 228
XXI "Heart and Hand" 253
XXII Mullendore Wins 263
XXIII When the Black Spot Hit 274
XXIV Toomey Goes into Something 283
XXV The Chinook 298
XXVI Taking Her Medicine 309
XXVII The Sheep Queen 322
XXVIII The Surprise of Mr. Wentz's Life 333
XXIX Toomey Distinguishes Himself 344
XXX Her Day 353

THE FIGHTING SHEPHERDESS

CHAPTER I

THE SAND COULEE ROADHOUSE

A heavily laden freight wagon, piled high with ranch supplies, stood in
the dooryard before a long loghouse. The yard was fenced with crooked
cottonwood poles so that it served also as a corral, around which the
leaders of the freight team wandered, stripped of their harness, looking
for a place to roll.

A woman stood on tip-toe gritting her teeth in exasperation as she
tugged at the check-rein on the big wheelhorse, which stuck obstinately
in the ring. When she loosened it finally, she stooped and looked under
the horse's neck at the girl of fourteen or thereabouts, who was
unharnessing the horse on the other side. "Good God, Kate," exclaimed
the woman irritably; "how many times must I tell you to unhook the
traces before you do up the lines? One of these days you'll have the
damnedest runaway in seven states."

The girl, whose thoughts obviously were not on what she was doing,
obeyed immediately, and without replying looped up the heavy traces,
throwing and tying the lines over the hames with experienced hands.

The resemblance between mother and daughter was so slight that it might
be said not to exist at all. It was clear that Kate's wide, thoughtful
eyes, generous mouth and softly curving but firm