The Boy Ranchers on the Trail | Page 2

rope as good as Nort," answered the stouter lad, as he
urged his pony, Blackie, into the herd. "But here goes!"
Meanwhile Nort had dragged the calf he had cut out to the corral where
the branding was going on. Two cowboys, stationed there for the
purpose, leaped forward and threw the calf over on its side, for it had
managed to struggle to its feet when Nort ceased dragging it. One man
twisted a front leg of the struggling creature back in a hammerlock and
knelt on its neck. The other took hold of the upper hind leg, and with
this hold prevented the calf from sprawling along on the ground.
"Sit on him!" called Mr. Merkel, owner of Diamond X and other
ranches. He was superintending the round-up of his herds and those
entrusted to Bud, Nort and Dick in the first business venture of the boy
ranchers. "Sit on him!" yelled Bud's father.

Accordingly the men sat on the calf, thus, with the holds they had
secured, keeping it under restraint with the least possible pain to the
small creature.
"Branding iron!" sang out Slim Degnan, foreman of the ranch.
A little blaze was flickering on the ground, not far from where the calf
Nort had cut out was thrown and held. In a moment the fire-tender had
seized the branding iron, and, a second or two later, it was being
pressed on the calf's flank.
The creature bawled loudly, and kicked out, thereby nearly throwing
off the men who were sitting on it. But the branding was all over in a
moment, and the men leaped up, releasing the animal.
The calf stood, dazed for the time being, after it had scrambled to its
feet, and then trotted out of the corral, lashing its side with its little tail.
Plainly branded on it now, never to be completely effaced, was the
mark of the ownership of Mr. Merkel-- an X inside a diamond.
"Next!" called the branders:
"Here comes Dick!" shouted Bud, as Nort rode up beside him. "And he
got his calf!" "Good!" exclaimed the brother. "I guess we're learning
the business!"
"Surest thing you know!" asserted the son of the owner of Diamond X.
"I told you it wasn't so hard, and you've done the same thing before."
"But not at such a big round-up," remarked Nort, as he prepared to ride
in again and cut out another calf.
"Yes, it is big," admitted Bud, as he made ready for his share in the
affair--his task being the same as that of his cousins--to cut out the
calves for branding purposes. "It sure is a big round-up."
It had been in progress for days. Twice a year on the big, western
ranches, the cattle are driven in from the outlying ranges, to be tallied,

inspected, marked and shipped away. The spring and fall round-ups are
always busy seasons at any ranch.
During the times between round-ups the new calves attained their
growth, but they needed to have branded into their hides the marks of
their owners. Then, too, some yearlings escaped branding at times,
either by remaining out of sight at the round-up, or in the attending
confusion.
Unbranded calves who had partly attained their growth, were termed
"mavericks," and when the herds of different owners mingled, there
was, usually, a division of the mavericks, since it could not be
accurately told who owned them.
The title maverick was derived from a stock man of that name, whose
practice was to claim all unbranded calves in a herd. His cowboys
would ride about, cutting out the unmarked animals, with the cool
statement:
"That's a maverick," meaning that it belonged to their "boss."
And so the name has commonly become associated with any half-
grown, unbranded calf.
Mr. Merkel was the owner of several ranches, Square M, Triangle B
and Diamond X, not to mention Diamond X Second, or Flume Valley,
of which his son Bud, and the latter's cousins, Norton and Richard
Shannon, were the nominal proprietors.
The cattle from Flume Valley, or "Happy Valley" as Bud called it after
the mystery of the underground water was solved, were in the round-up
with the others from his father's ranches.
For days preceding the lively doings I have just described, the cowboys,
called in from distant ranges, had driven the cattle toward the central
assembling point--the corrals at Diamond X.
Slowly the longhorns, the shorthorns and cattle with no horns at all, had

been "hazed" in from their feeding grounds toward Diamond X. The
cow punchers had galloped hard all day, and they had ridden herd at
night, to keep the animals from straying. At night this was not so hard,
for the animals were glad to rest during the darkness.
But during the day there was always