d
glumly, and waved an arm to a collie that was waiting for orders. The
dog dropped his head, and ran around the right wing of the band, with
sharp yelps and dartings here and there, turning them still more to the
west.

Andy hesitated, decided to leave the man alone for the present, and rode
around to the other herder.

"You swing these sheep north!" he commanded, disdaining preface or
explanation.

"I'm workin' for the man that pays my wages," the herder made answer
stolidly, and chewed steadily upon a quid of tobacco that had stained
his lips unbecomingly.

So they had talked the thing over--had those two herders--and were
following a premeditated plan of defiance! Andy hooked at the man a
minute. "You turn them sheep, damn you," he commanded again, and laid a
hand upon his saddle-horn suggestively.

"You go to the devil, damn yuh," advised the herder, and cocked a wary
eye at him from under his hat-brim. Not all herders, let it be said
in passing, take unto themselves the mental attributes of their sheep;
there are those who believe that a bold front is better than weak
compliance, and who will back that belief by a very bold front indeed.

Andy appraised him mentally, decided that he was an able-bodied man
and therefore fightable, and threw his right leg over the cantle with a
quite surprising alacrity.

"Are you going to turn them sheep?" Andy was taking off his coat when he
made that inquiry.

"Not for your tellin'. You keep back, young feller, or I'll sick the
dogs on yuh." He turned and whistled to the nearest one, and Andy hit
him on the ear.

They clinched and pummeled when they could and where they could. The
dog came up, circled the gyrating forms twice, then sat down upon his
haunches at a safe distance, tilted his head sidewise and lifted his
ears interestedly. He was a wise little dog; the other dog was also
wise, and remained phlegmatically at his post, as did the bug-killer.

"Are you going to turn them sheep?" Andy spoke breathlessly, but with
deadly significance.

"N-yes."

Andy took his fingers from the other's Adam's apple, his knee from the
other's diaphragm, and went over to where he had thrown down his coat,
felt in a pocket for his handkerchief, and, when he had found it,
applied it to his nose, which was bleeding profusely.

"Fly at it, then," he advised, eyeing the other sternly over the
handkerchief. "I'd hate to ask you a third time."

"I'd hate to have yuh," conceded th