It was in the ’70s, when the buffalo were fast disappearing from the state, and the hunters were beginning to turn to other ways of earning a living, that Buck Peters stopped his wagon on the banks of Snake Creek and built himself a sod dugout in the heart of a country forbidding and full of perils. It was said that he was only the agent for an eastern syndicate that, carried away by the prospects of the cattle industry, bought a "ranch," which later was found to be entirely strange to cattle. As a matter of fact there were no cows within three hundred miles of it, and there never had been. Somehow the syndicate got in touch with Buck and sent him out to look things over and make a report to them. This he did, and in his report he stated that the "ranch" was split in two parts by about forty square miles of public land, which he recommended that he be allowed to buy according to his judgment. When everything was settled the syndicate found that they owned the west, and best, bank of an unfailing river and both banks of an unfailing creek for a distance of about thirty miles. The strip was not very wide then, but it did not need to be, for it cut off the back-lying range from water and rendered it useless to anyone but his employers. Westward there was no water to amount to anything for one hundred miles. When this had been digested thoroughly by the syndicate it caused Buck’s next pay check to be twice the size of the first. He managed to live through the winter, and the following spring a herd of about two thousand or more poor cattle was delivered to him, and he noticed at once that fully half of them were unbranded; but mavericks were cows, and in those days it was not questionable to brand them. Persuading two members of the drive outfit to work for him he settled down to face the work and perils of ranching in a wild country. One of these two men, George Travis, did not work long; the other was the man who told me these tales. Red went back with the drive outfit, but in Buck’s wagon, to return in four weeks with it heaped full of necessities, and to find that troubles already had begun. Buck’s trust was not misplaced. It was during Red’s absence that Bill Cassidy, later to be known by a more descriptive name, appeared upon the scene and played his cards. C. E. M. CONTENTS I The Coming of Cassidy II The Weasel III Jimmy Price IV Jimmy Visits Sharpsville V The Luck of Fools VI Hopalong’s Hop VII "Dealing the Odd" VIII The Norther IX The Drive X The Hold-Up XI Sammy Finds a Friend XII Sammy Knows the Game XIII His Code XIV Sammy Hunts a Job XV When Johnny Sloped ILLUSTRATIONS Suddenly a rope ... yanked him from the saddle . . . Frontispiece There was a sharp report "It’s Injuns, close after us" Crawford’s Colt tore loose from his fingers and dropped near the wheel of the wagon "Yo’re a liar!" rang out the vibrant voice of the cowman