hums for years, ever seeking mutual employ,
known through Texas and Arizona as the "Three Musketeers of the Range,"
sat on the porch of the ranch-house, discussing business and lighter
matters. One year before they had pooled their savings and Sandy Bourke,
youngest of the three and the most aggressive, coolest and swiftest of
action, had gloriously bucked the faro tiger and won enough to buy the
Three Star Ranch and certain rights of free range. The purchase had not
included the brand of the late owner. Originally the holding had been
called the Two-Bar-P. As certain cattlemen were not wanting who had a
knack of appropriating calves and changing the brands of steers, Sandy
had been glad enough, in his capacity of business manager, to change the
name of the ranch and brand. Two-Bar-P was too easily altered to H-B,
U-P, U-B, O-P, or B; a score of combinations hard to prove as forgeries.

There had been lengthy argument concerning the new name. Three Star, so
Soda-Water Sam--whose nickname was satirical--opined, smacked of the
saloon rather than the ranch, but it was finally decided on and the
branding-irons duly made.

Sandy Bourke had dark brown hair, inclined to be curly, a tendency he
offset by frequent clipping of his thatch. The sobriquet of "Sandy"
referred to his grit. He was broad-shouldered, tall and lean, weighing a
hundred and seventy pounds of well-strung frame. His eyes were gray and
the lids sun-puckered; his deeply tanned skin showed the freckles on
face and hands as faint inlays; his long limber legs were slightly
bowed.

Not so the curve of Soda-Water Sam's legs. You could pass a small keg
between the latter's knees without interference. Otherwise, Sam, whose
last name was Manning, was mainly distinguished by his enormous drooping
mustache, suggesting the horns of a Texas steer, inverted.

As for Mormon, disillusioned hero of three matrimonial adventures,
woman-soft where Sandy was woman-shy, he was high-stomached, too stout
for saddle-ease to himself or mount, sun-rouged where his partners were
burned brown. His pate was bald save for a tonsure-fringe of
grizzle-red.

All three were first-rate cattlemen, their enterprise bade fair for
success, hampered only by the lack of capital, occasioned by Sandy's
preference for modern methods as evidenced by thoroughbred bulls,
high-grading of his steers, the steadily growing patches of alfalfa and
the spreading network of irrigation ditches.

Business exha