he, "I'm goin' to take one of those hosses and go
somewheres else. Maybe you'd better do likewise on the other."

"You bet I will," says I.

He turned around and taked up the paper he was carryin'. It was a
sign. It read:

THE DUTCH HAS RUSTLED

"Nice sentiment," says I. "It will be appreciated when the crowd comes
back from that little pasear into Buck Canon. But why not tack her up
where the trail hits the camp? Why on this particular door?"

"Well," said Dutchy, squintin' at the sign sideways, "you see I sold
this place day before yesterday--to Mike O'Toole."

CHAPTER EIGHT

THE CORRAL BRANDING

All that night we slept like sticks of wood. No dreams visited us, but
in accordance with the immemorial habit of those who live out--whether
in the woods, on the plains, among the mountains, or at sea--once
during the night each of us rose on his elbow, looked about him, and
dropped back to sleep. If there had been a fire to replenish, that
would have been the moment to do so; if the wind had been changing and
the seas rising, that would have been the time to cast an eye aloft for
indications, to feel whether the anchor cable was holding; if the
pack-horses had straggled from the alpine meadows under the snows, this
would have been the occasion for intent listening for the faintly
tinkling hell so that next day one would know in which direction to
look. But since there existed for us no responsibility, we each
reported dutifully at the roll-call of habit, and dropped back into our
blankets with a grateful sigh.

I remember the moon sailing a good gait among apparently stationary
cloudlets; I recall a deep, black shadow lying before distant silvery
mountains; I glanced over the stark, motionless canvases, each of which
concealed a man; the air trembled with the bellowing of cattle in the
corrals.

Seemingly but a moment later the cook's howl brought me to
consciousness again. A clear, licking little fire danced in the
blackness. Before it moved silhouettes of men already eating.

I piled out and joined the group. Homer was busy distributing his men
for the day. Three were to care for the remuda; five were to move the
stray-herd from the corrals to good feed; three branding crews were
told to brand the calves we had collected in the cut of the afternoon
before. That took up about half the men. The rest were to make a
short drive in the salt grass. I joined the Cattleman, and tog