to their
mothers and from the sanctuary of grass-filled paunches watched the
riders with wide, inquisitive eyes.

"We ought to be starting out, by now," Weary observed a bit gloomily to
Andy and Pink, who rode upon either side of him. "The calf crop is going
to be good, if this weather holds on another two weeks or so. But--" he
waved his cigarette disgustedly "--that darned Dot outfit would be all
over the place, if we pulled out on roundup and left 'em the run of
things." He smoked moodily for a minute. "My religion has changed a lot
in the last few days," he observed whimsically. "My idea of hell is
a place where there ain't anything but sheep and sheepherders; and
cowpunchers have got to spend thousands uh years right in the middle of
the corrals."

"If that's the case, I'm going to quit cussing, and say my prayers every
night," Andy Green asserted emphatically.

"What worries me," Weary confided, obeying the impulse to talk over his
troubles with those who sympathized, "is how I'm going to keep the work
going along like it ought to, and at the same time keep them Dot sheep
outa the house. Dunk's wise, all right. He knows enough about the cow
business to know we ye got to get out on the range pretty quick, now.
And he's so mean that every day or every half day he can feed his sheep
on Flying U grass, he calls that much to the good. And he knows we won't
go to opening up any real gun-fights if we can get out of it; he counts
on our faunching around and kicking up a lot of dust, maybe--but we
won't do anything like what he'd do, in our places. He knows the Old Man
and Chip are gone, and he knows we've just naturally got to sit back and
swallow our tongues because we haven't any authority. Mamma! It comes
pretty tough, when a low-down skunk like that just banks on your doing
the square thing. He wouldn't do it, but he knows we will; and so he
takes advantage of white men and gets the best of 'em. And if we should
happen to break out and do something, he knows the herders would be the
ones to get it in the neck; and he'd wait till the dust settled, and bob
up with the sheriff--" He waved his hand again with a hopeless gesture.
"It may not look that way on the face of it," he added gloomily, "but
Dunk has got us right where he wants us. From the way they've been
letting sheep on our land, time and time again, I'd gamble he's just
trying to make us so mad we'll break out. He's got it in for the whole
outfit, from the O