For twenty-four hours the two cowmen from the distant Clay Creek ranch had owned Coyote Centre.

Cowmen in those days prided themselves on their outfits, and Carter was a trifle gone on his men.

Booted and spurred, with his gun swinging visibly, and his big sombrero and gaudy scarf, he looked exactly what he was, a cowman of the open ranges.

I want you to go over with me to-morrow, Stubby, and give him a big game about what a general uprising there is amongst the cowmen for an efficient man for the office of sheriff, and make it strong.

They send their young steers north to maturegood idea, too!but they are not cowmen like the ones we know.

I bossed that year from Van Zandt County, for old Andy Erath, who, by the way, was a dead square cowman with not a hide-bound idea in his make-up.