"Well, I'm a-goin' to give up
cigaroot-smokin'."

"What for?" asked Polly, in surprise.

"Goin' in trainin' to kiss the bride."

"That's nice!" said Polly, beaming.

"Yep, have to take up chawin', like Bud Lane."

Polly was saved from having to answer by Sage-brush galloping up to the
wagon.

"Put on your gun!" he shouted to Parenthesis.

Asking no questions, the cow-puncher obeyed his foreman. Trouble was
brewing, that he could plainly see. All he had to do was to obey
orders, and shoot when any one tried to point a gun at him.

Turning to Polly, he cried: "Where's Mrs. Payson?"

"She came over with me, but stopped to look over the tally for those
cows that are goin' with the drive."

More to himself than to Parenthesis or Polly, Sage-brush said: "I wish
she'd stayed at the ranch. This range is no place for women now. Buck
McKee and his outfit has tanked up with Gila whisky, an' they're just
pawin' for trouble."

"What's come over people lately?" asked Polly.

"It's all along of Hoover goin' away like he did, and leavin' us
without a sheriff, or nobody that is anybody makin' a bluff at law and
order," cried Sage-brush.

"It's sot this section back twenty years," observed Parenthesis.

"That's what it has," agreed the foreman. "Fresno reports that he
found that Peruna slappin' the Lazy K brand on one of our calves.
There ain't nobody can maverick no calves belongin' to this outfit.
Not so long as I'm ranch boss an' captain of the round-up. We've got
to take the law in our own han's an' make an example of this bunch,
right now."

Sage-brush meant what he said. He was gathering reenforcements from
his own men. He knew that the boys of the Allen ranch would side with
him, and he felt that there were enough lovers of law and order in the
county to declare themselves against the high-handed methods of Buck
McKee and his followers.

"Come on, you fellows!" shouted Show Low, as he rode past the wagon up
the range.

"What is it now?" asked Sage-brush.

Over his shoulder Show Low shouted: "We all had a run in with that Buck
McKee's bunch. Fresno's laid out with a hole in his shoulder. Billie
Nicker's cashed in. I've got some of the Triangle boys, and we're
goin' to make a clean-up."

"You ain't goin' to do nothin' unless I say so. We don't want no
range-war--we'll git the man that did the killin'. Come on," commanded
Sage-brush.

Polly galloped after the men, saying: "Gee, I'll miss some