"Sure there is," replied Phil. And sitting on his heels, cowboy fashion, he marked on the ground with a stick. "Look! This is the Cross-Triangle brand: [Illustration]; and this: [Illustration], the Four-Bar-M, happens to be Nick Cambert's iron, over at Tailholt Mountain. Now, can't you see how, supposing I were Nick, and this calf were branded with the Cross-Triangle, I could work the iron over into my brand?" Patches nodded. "But is there no way to detect such a fraud?" "It's a mighty hard thing to prove that an iron has bees worked over," Phil answered slowly. "About the only sure way is to catch the thief in the act." "But there are the earmarks," said Patches, a few moments later, when Phil had released the branded and marked calf--"the earmarks and the brand wouldn't agree." "They would if I were Nick," said the cowboy. Then he added quickly, as if regretting his remark, "Our earmark is an under-bit right and a split left, you said. Well, the Four-Bar-M earmark is a crop and an under-bit right and a swallow-fork left." With the point of his iron now he again marked in the dirt. "Here's your Cross-Triangle: [Illustration]; and here's your Pour-Bar-M: [Illustration]." "And if a calf branded with a Tailholt iron were to be found following a Cross-Triangle cow, then what?" came Patches' very natural question. "Then," returned the foreman of the Cross-Triangle grimly, "there would be a mighty good chance for trouble." "But it seems to me," said Patches, as they rode on, "that it would be easily possible for a man to brand another man's calf by mistake." "A man always makes a mistake when he puts his iron on another man's property," returned the cowboy shortly. "But might it not be done innocently, just the same!" persisted Patches. "Yes, it might," admitted Phil. "Well, then, what would you do if you found a calf, that you knew belonged to the Dean, branded with some other man's brand? I mean, how would you proceed?"