"I'm sayin' somethin' is plumb wrong down here," replied Johnny. "Somebody has been ridin' th' line careless, an' a lot of mavericks has got across. Fraser, how many riders has Big Tom kept on his northwest lines?" Fraser looked serious and pretended to ponder deeply. "Only one--Wolf. An' he was allus payin' more attention to th' west line, facin' th' Snake Buttes country than he was to th' north line, though. All he could think of was rustlers. Cussed if he didn't near sleep with 'em, he had 'em in his mind so strong." He did not see Slim's sneering smile or the look he exchanged with Arch. Slim was beginning to regard that outfit very much in that light. "That's what I thought," replied Johnny, triumphantly. "He wasn't ridin' sign at all--he was only lookin' for rustlers. An' while he was prancin' along that west line lookin' for Nevada, them mavericks was driftin' off th' SV to get in that brush where th' flies wouldn't bother 'em so much. That accounts for a lot of them unmarked cows you was speakin' about." "Does look like mebby there's somethin' in that," cogitated Fraser. "As I said, we never paid much attention to th' cattle out there; but it don't sound reasonable that all them SV mavericks would drift over onto us. An' why only mavericks?" He thought for a moment. "I'm sayin' nothin', but there's somethin' plumb wrong, somewhere. Want me to ask Big Tom about it? Mebby it was rustlers--they're plumb active." Johnny considered. "Well, you might," he said, slowly, leaning slightly forward in his chair. "Tell you what, Fraser; I'm dead shore about them nine hundred seventy. Suppose you tell him to brand that many mavericks, takin' 'em as they come, with th' SV mark, an' throw 'em over to Arnold when he holds his fall round-up? Th' SV will provide stampin' irons, an' a couple of men to help. As to rustlers, they'd have to drive across th' Bar H an' th' Double X to get to Arnold's ranch--any rustlin' that was done would be done on th' fringes of th' Double X. Why, you fellers ain't never been raided; an' to get to th' SV would be worse than gettin' to th' Bar H. That's what we'll do; we'll have him throw over nine hundred an' seventy head this fall, an' that'll make things right."