od by our horses ready to start.

"I didn't recognize it by that name," replied Quince Forrest, who rode
in the swing on the branded side of the cattle and belonged to the
last guard, "but I remember seeing such a brand, though I would have
given it a different name. Yes, come to think, I'm sure I saw it, and
I'll tell you where: yesterday morning when I rode out to throw those
drifting cattle away from our herd, I saw that brand among the Ellison
cattle which had stampeded the night before. When Straw's outfit cut
theirs out yesterday, they must have left the 'Window Sash' cattle
with us; those were the range cattle which stampeded his herd. It
looked to me a little blotched, but if I'd been called on to name it,
I'd called it a thief's brand. If these gentlemen claim them, though,
it'll only take a minute to cut them out."

"This outfit needn't get personal and fling out their insults,"
retorted the claimant of the "Window Sash" brand, "for I'll claim my
own if there were a hundred of you. And you can depend that any animal
I claim, I'll take, if I have to go back to the ranch and bring twenty
men to help me do it."

"You won't need any help to get all that's coming to you," replied our
foreman, as he mounted his horse. "Let's throw the herd together,
boys, and cut these 'Window Sash' cattle out. We don't want any cattle
in our herd that stampede on an open range at midnight; they must
certainly be terrible wild."

As we rode out together, our trail cutters dropped behind and kept a
respectable distance from the herd while we threw the cattle together.
When the herd had closed to the required compactness, Flood called our
trail cutters up and said, "Now, men, each one of you can take one of
my outfit with you and inspect this herd to your satisfaction. If you
see anything there you claim, we'll cut it out for you, but don't
attempt to cut anything yourselves."

We rode in by pairs, a man of ours with each stranger, and after
riding leisurely through the herd for half an hour, cut out three head
in the blotched brand called the "Window Sash." Before leaving the
herd, one of the strangers laid claim to a red cow, but Fox
Quarternight refused to cut the animal.

When the pair rode out the stranger accosted Flood. "I notice a cow of
mine in there," said he, "not in your road brand, which I claim. Your
man here refuses to cut her for me, so I appeal to you."

"What's her brand, Fox?" asked Flood.

"She's a 'Q' co