eer."

"My sire was born in Ireland and is living yet," retorted Bold
Richard. "Cut the cards, young fellow."

"The proposition is yours--cut first yourself."

The other players languidly returned to the table. Larkin cut a five
spot of clubs and was in the act of tearing it in two, when Tex turned
the tray of spades. Thus, on the turn of a low card, the line-back
steer passed into the questionable possession of Dick Larkin. The
Cherokee Strip wrought magic in a Texas steer. One or two winters in
its rigorous climate transformed the gaunt long-horn into a marketable
beef. The line-back steer met the rigors of the first winter and by
June was as glossy as a gentleman's silk tile. But at that spring
round-up there was a special inspector from Texas, and no sooner did
his eye fall upon the bar-circle-bar steer than he opened his book
and showed the brand and his authority to claim him. When Dick Larkin
asked to see his credentials, the inspector not only produced them,
but gave the owner's name and the county in which the brand was a
matter of record. There was no going back on that, and the Texas man
took the line-back steer. But the round-up stayed all night in the
Pool pasture, and Larkin made it his business to get on second guard
in night-herding the cut. He had previously assisted in bedding down
the cattle for the night, and made it a point to see that the poker
three-year-old lay down on the outer edge of the bed ground. The next
morning the line-back steer was on his chosen range in the south end
of the pasture. How he escaped was never known; there are ways and
ways in a cow country.

At daybreak the round-up moved into the next pasture, the wagons, cut
and saddle horses following. The special inspector was kept so busy
for the next week that he never had time to look over the winter drift
and strays, which now numbered nearly two thousand cattle. When the
work ended the inspector missed the line-back steer. He said nothing,
however, but exercised caution enough to take what cattle he had
gathered up into Kansas for pasturage.

When the men who had gone that year on the round-up on the western
division returned, there was a man from Reece's camp in the Strip,
east on Black Bear, who asked permission to leave about a dozen cattle
in the Pool. He was alone, and, saying he would bring another man with
him during the shipping season, he went his way. But when Reece's men
came back after their winter drift durin