cattle, six hundred and four, to be exact, including motherless
calves. Of this number more than two-thirds bear altered brands similar
to these." He pointed to the hides on the table: "May I ask how they
came into your possession?"

"You can't prove nothing!" snarled the cornered wolf, viciously. The
other smiled incredulously.

"No? Evidently you have not considered these," touching the letters,
significantly. "Well, we won't argue that point. The upshot of the
matter is that I have a proposal to make to you. I am anxious to acquire
the ownership of the brand myself, and as I have not got enough ready
money to buy it outright, what do you say to a little game of
freeze-out, with these for my stakes as against your bill of sale?" He
pointed to the heap on the table. "You'll be getting much the best of
it!"

For a moment the gambler glared fiendishly at the imperturbable man
facing him; his body was quivering all over with illy suppressed hate
and fury. He crouched like a wild beast preparing to spring, his hands
opening and closing nervously. Then out of the silence came the nasal
humming of Red:

"Yeah's to thu gyurl thet is faih an' kind,
An' yeah's to thu man who is game!"

The taunt stung him back to composure again. Every gambler is a fatalist
by nature; the chance was, after all, more than he had any logical right
to expect under the circumstances. And Big Bart Coogan was game to the
core of his calloused heart! With an admirable effort he recovered his
self-control, and the hand that held the lighted match to the fresh
cigar which Strang politely tendered him was as steady as a rock.

"Anything to oblige a fellow sport!" he said with a fine return to his
professional deference. "Have you a blank form about you, Lew?"

Ballard produced one already filled out; the gambler glanced at him
meaningly. "Got it all framed up, eh?"

"Framed up nothing!" said the marshall, indignantly. "If you win out
this business will be dropped. I think, myself, that you are in big luck
to get so favorable a deal! In his place I'd have settled it in another
way."

"Well," said Coogan, affably, as he scrawled his name with a fountain
pen at the bottom of the instrument, "after I've won out suppose you
take his place." Ballard jerked his head in instantaneous acquiescence.
"If you win out!" he assented, gravely. Then he summoned the bartender,
who was a notary public, to take Coogan's acknowledgment of signature;
the