“Just the man I wanted to see, Sandy,” said his employer.  “I want you to meet these three young friends of mine.”

As their names were spoken the boys stepped forward and shook hands heartily.

“Mr. Clinch is one of the best foremen that ever rode the range or roped a steer,” went on Melton, “and what he don’t know about a ranch isn’t worth knowing.  I’ve got to go up to the house now to look over some accounts and I’m going to leave you in his care.  You remember, Sandy, that little scrap in Mexico I told you about?  Well, these are the boys that stood at my back.  They’ve got a knack for getting into a shindy on the slightest provocation and I look to you to keep them out of trouble.  I warn you though that it is a man’s job.”

“I guess I’m up to it, boss,” grinned Sandy.  “There ain’t much chance for trouble round here, anyhow.  There may be a look in if those ornery rustlers don’t quit fooling with our cattle.  But just at this minute things is plumb peaceful.  I’m going up to the corral where the wranglers are breaking in some of the young horses, and perhaps these young fellers would like to come along.”

Nothing possibly could suit them better, and while Mr. Melton retraced his steps to the house they followed the foreman to the corral.

There everything was animation and apparent confusion.  The clatter of hoofs, the swish of lariats, the shouts of the “wranglers” as they sought to bring their wayward charges under control, while a matter of everyday routine to the cowboys themselves were entirely new to the boys, who leaned against the log fence and watched the proceedings with breathless interest.

There were two corrals of almost equal size, each covering several acres of ground, and a broad gate connected the two.  In one of them were forty or more young horses who up to now had been running wild on the range.  They had never known the touch of a whip or a spur, nor felt the weight of a rider.  The nearest approach to constraint they had ever experienced was that furnished by the encircling fence of the corral into which they had been driven yesterday.  That this was irksome and even terrifying was evident by their dilated nostrils, their wild expression, and the way they pawed at the bars and at times measured the height of the fence, as though contemplating a leap over it into the wide spaces beyond.  But their instinct told them that they could not make it, and they ran around restlessly or pawed the ground uneasily, waiting their turn to be roped and broken.

When the boys reached the outer fence, one of them had just been caught by a whirling lariat and dragged, stubbornly protesting, into the adjoining corral.  Once there he made a wild dash to escape and lashed out fiercely with his heels at the men who held him.  But with a skill born of long experience they eluded him, and one of them, watching his chance, suddenly leaped on his back.  The men, on either side, relinquished their hold, and retreated to a safe position on the fence.