matches, two on a side.  For a spell this worked fine.  But cowboys can’t never be satisfied long onless they win all the time.  Monty an’ Link Stevens, both cripples, you might say, joined forces an’ elected to beat all comers.  Wal, they did, an’ that’s the trouble.  Long an’ patient the other cowboys tried to beat them two game legs, an’ hevn’t done it.  Mebbe if Monty an’ Link was perfectly sound in their legs like the other cowboys there wouldn’t hev been such a holler.  But no sound cowboys’ll ever stand for a disgrace like that.  Why, down at the bunks in the evenin’s it’s some mortifyin’ the way Monty an’ Link crow over the rest of the outfit.  They’ve taken on superior airs.  You couldn’t reach up to Monty with a trimmed spruce pole.  An’ Link—­wal, he’s just amazin’ scornful.

“‘It’s a swell game, ain’t it?’ says Link, powerful sarcastic.  ‘Wal, what’s hurtin’ you low-down common cowmen?  You keep harpin’ on Monty’s game leg an’ on my game leg.  If we hed good legs we’d beat you all the wuss.  It’s brains that wins in gol-lof.  Brains an’ airstoocratik blood, which of the same you fellers sure hev little.’

“An’ then Monty he blows smoke powerful careless an’ superior, an’ he says: 

“‘Sure it’s a swell game.  You cow-headed gents think beef an’ brawn ought to hev the call over skill an’ gray matter.  You’ll all hev to back up an’ get down.  Go out an’ learn the game.  You don’t know a baffy from a Chinee sandwich.  All you can do is waggle with a club an’ fozzle the ball.’

“Whenever Monty gets to usin’ them queer names the boys go round kind of dotty.  Monty an’ Link hev got the books an’ directions of the game, an’ they won’t let the other boys see them.  They show the rules, but that’s all.  An’, of course, every game ends in a row almost before it’s started.  The boys are all turrible in earnest about this gol-lof.  An’ I want to say, for the good of ranchin’, not to mention a possible fight, that Monty an’ Link hev got to be beat.  There’ll be no peace round this ranch till that’s done.”

Madeline’s guests were much amused.  As for herself, in spite of her scarcely considered doubt, Stillwell’s tale of woe occasioned her anxiety.  However, she could hardly control her mirth.

“What in the world can I do?”

“Wal, I reckon I couldn’t say.  I only come to you for advice.  It seems that a queer kind of game has locoed my cowboys, an’ for the time bein’ ranchin’ is at a standstill.  Sounds ridiculous, I know, but cowboys are as strange as wild cattle.  All I’m sure of is that the conceit has got to be taken out of Monty an’ Link.  Onct, just onct, will square it, an’ then we can resoome our work.”

“Stillwell, listen,” said Madeline, brightly.  “We’ll arrange a match game, a foursome, between Monty and Link and your best picked team.  Castleton, who is an expert golfer, will umpire.  My sister, and friends, and I will take turns as caddies for your team.  That will be fair, considering yours is the weaker.  Caddies may coach, and perhaps expert advice is all that is necessary for your team to defeat Monty’s.”