bullets, knives, or beating
to death. They took away the guns, however, and they told them with
extreme bluntness what sort of men they believed them to be. They
defined accurately their position in society at large, in that
neighborhood, and stated what would be their future fate if they
persisted in acting with so little caution and common sense.

At Andy Green's earnest behest they also wound them round and round with
ropes, before they departed, and gave them some very good advice upon
the matter of range rules and the herding of sheep, particularly of Dot
sheep.

"You're playing big luck, if you only had sense enough to know it," Andy
pointed out to the recumbent three before they rode away. "We didn't
come over here on the warpath, and, if you hadn't got in such a darned
hurry to start something, you'd be a whole lot more comfortable right
now. We rode over to tell yuh not to start them sheep across Flying U
coulee; because, if you do, you're going to have both hands and your
hats plumb full uh trouble. It has taken some little time and fussing
to get yuh gentled down so we can talk to you, and I sure do hope yuh
remember what I'm saying."

"Oh, we'll remember it, all right!" menaced one of the men, lifting his
head turtlewise that he might glare at the group. "And our bosses'll
remember it; you needn't worry about that none. You wait till--"

The next man to him turned his head and muttered a sentence, and the
speaker dropped his head back upon the ground, silenced.

"It was your own outfit started this style of rope trimming, so you
can't kick about that part of the deal," Pink informed them melodiously.
"It's liable to get to be all the rage with us. So, if you don't like
it, don't come around where we are. And say!" His dimples stood deep in
his cheeks. "You send those ropes home to-morrow, will yuh? We're liable
to need 'em."

"By cripes!" Big Medicine bawled. "What say we haze them sheep a few
miles north, boys?"

"Oh, I guess they'll be all right where they are," Andy protested, his
thirst for revenge assuaged at sight of those three trussed as he had
been trussed, and apparently not liking it any better than he had liked
it. "They'll be good and careful not to come around the Flying U--or I
miss my guess a mile."

The others cast comprehensive glances at their immediate surroundings,
and decided that they had at least made their meaning plain; there
was no occasion for emphasizing their disappro