The Flying U Ranch

Happy Family scurried here and there behind the band, swinging their ropes down upon the woolly backs, and searching their vocabularies for new and terrib

ccount, that day, and he was therefore grateful for

d a momentary panic that came near standing both horse and rider upon their heads. And there was Big Medicine whistling until he was purple, while the herder, with a single gesture, held the dog

nd their souls' salvation below. By the time they panted up the last rock-strewn slope of the bluff, and sent the

a few feet of space divided them. "Here's where you get yours, amigo. I wish you a pleasant day-and a long one!"

dicine. "You'll wisht, by cripes, you was a dozen men just

dy's grin, had something to say

undecidedly from Andy to

ike tackling it sing

isply, "a Montgomery Ward two-for-a-quarter cowpunche

k beyond shouting an occasional command to their dogs. Neither did Andy have anything to say, until he saw that they were swinging steadily to th

d around," he hinted quietly

a collie that was waiting for orders. The dog dropped his head, and ran around the right wing

the man alone for the present, an

th!" he commanded, disdain

der made answer stolidly, and chewed steadily upon a

editated plan of defiance! Andy hooked at the man a minute. "You turn them sheep,

herders, let it be said in passing, take unto themselves the mental attributes of their sheep; there are those who

e-bodied man and therefore fightable, and threw his rig

eep?" Andy was taking off his

or I'll sick the dogs on yuh." He turned and whist

then sat down upon his haunches at a safe distance, tilted his head sidewise and lifted his ears interestedly. He

eep?" Andy spoke breathlessly,

-y

m, and went over to where he had thrown down his coat, felt in a pocket for his handker

the other sternly over the handkerchie

"I was sure I c'd lick yuh, or I'd 'a' turned 'em before.

e above the general run uh lamb-hickers," he observed, after a minute. "Who are you working for,

er, "for the Dot outfit. I t

punch or two I haven't used

and Oleson, if y

d, which edged off from then and the dogs. "And what

rly. "We knowed you was a mean outfit; the boss told us so. And he told us you was blank ca'tridges and we needn't back up just 'cause you raised up on your

if all his antagonism had oozed in the fight. "You ride along this edge, so they won't scatte

ged. "Blank cartridges-I sure do like that! If you only knew it, high power dum-dums

g stick he carried, and the sheep, while the herders talked, scattered irresponsibly. Andy wondered what made sheepmen so "ornery," particularly herders. He wondered why the fellow he had thrashed was so insultingly defiant at f

bordered Antelope coulee. The bug-killer, upon his side, also seemed imbued with the spir

," he observed; and the man from Wyo

boot-heels into the soft soil, to gain a foothold on the descent. When he was halfway down, he chan

of 'em," Andy called back, but the herder did

there was a sound of pebbles knocked loose in haste, a scrambling, and then came the impact of his body. Andy teetered, lost his balance, and went to th

nce that Irish had invented over a stubborn sheep, that he might repeat it to the bug-killer.

a few turns." He thereupon helped force Andy's arms to his side, and wound t

chin' all over fer a chance to return the favor to some uh you gay boys. And," he added, with malicious satisfaction, while he rolled Andy over and tied a perfectly unslippable knot

," Andy promised earnestly, with embellishments bett

e I ain't mean unless I'm drove to it. Turn him feet down hill, Oscar, so he won't git a rush uh brains to the head and die on our hands. N

mentally pronounced the job well done, and took a generous ch

se, which he disposed of by tying up the reins and giving it a slap on the rump. When it had trotted fifty yards

, but we're goin' to cross our sheep wherever we dern please, to git where we want to go. Gawd didn't make this range and ha

of seeing that noisome, foolish-faced band trail down Antelope coulee and back upon the level they had just left, and of knowing to a gloomy certaint

ight, hearing and smell, wriggled himself into as comfort