The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1898-08-17
THE GRAY STEER.

Twelve hundred feet high is the
sun-dial of the Lazy J Ranch and
nearly as broad-that cliff of divers
hues which stands out from the wall
of the canon of the Grand river.
The opposite precipice serves the
cowboys as gnomon or index to the
hours of day, for its shadow sweeps
over the stupendous, variegated face
and marks the course of the sun
through sky that is always un-
clouded. A ledge of porphyry, fifty
looks like strip of pink ribbon to
the men below by the stream. But it
was a glorious coronal. kindling in the
first rays from the east, when Holden
hailed it with uplifted eye and hand
as he quirted his horse through the
barway of the corral.
"5unup" cried Holden, the young
foreman, filled with the JOY of the
morning. He is the son of the presi-
dent of the cattle company; he had
come straight from college to the cow
camp. and the old stroke of the var
sity eight set a hot pace in saddle for
the Lazy riders.
He rode that morning big-boned,
Roman -nosed, blue-roan "outlaw"- a
horse pronounced irreclaimable by the
boys; he had tied a bucking roll
across the shoulders of his saddle to
supplement the grip of his knees, and
on top of that lay the big, loose coil
of his fifty-foot cable line, for he was
still young enough to disdain lariat
of lesser length and caliber.
Behind Holden Navajo Jim lifted n
light left foot to the stirrup; then his
spurred right tripped clinking to the
evasive dance of his young horse, and
he slipped inimitably into his saddle.
To its right shoulder hung the trim
coiled ring of his rope of braided raw
hide, which, to that of the foreman.
was as steel to iron and would hold
anything on hoofs.
Foreman and follower struck out
through the greasewood over ground
without grass; the grazing range lay
high on the mesa, fenced by the lofty
wall of the canon. Its seemingly in.
accessible height was scaled by the
sure-footed. agile range cattle at Il
break in the porphyry ledge not far
up the canon, and presently they took
to the dizzy trail.
With slack cinches the blowing
horses clawed up the loose footing at
the top of the break and moved out on
n narrow projecting tongue of the
ened and was set with squat cedars
and pinons. Here the riders saw cat
tie already chewing their cuds in the
shade.
"We're too low down. There's
nothing here" said the young fore
man, his eyes rowing over the stock.
"lt's beef I'm after. I've got to
get train-road off by the first aud not
hundred steers gathered yet!'
"Quaking-asp putty good place
for steer now," said Navajo Jim.
water sweet there and stam,in-
ground close"
eyes, know" Holden returned,
impatiently. "The boys started
twenty head down yesterday aud had
them pointed for the corral, when
that blamed gray steer scattered the
bunch, IN they broke back for the
hills"
THAT gray steer like bull elk. Bet
ter corral him with six-shooter, said
Jim. Zone steer not much worth"
"Six-shooter nothing! What's our
ropes for?" cried Holden. "That big
grizzly brute will fetch up whole
carload to the top notch in the stock
pens. He goes on hoof to Omaha.
told the boys I'd give S5O-dollar
saddle to the first man that twined'
him and stayed with him."
81 already got putty good saddle,
Mr.. Holden" said jim, with a grin.
''That steer seven, eight year old now,
and all time run wild. Horns so long
stick clean through horse"
r"Well, beef's mp in the air; horses
are down." returned the foreman.
"Quirt up, Jim. We'll strike up
higher"
On the loftier grazing ground they
found the cattle still at feed. Through
thickening hosts of deer-fiies and
horse-hies their horses strained up the
steep oakbrush slopes. In banded
resistance to like winged attacks, the
cattle OF the higher range were begin
ming to "bunch" on each open stamp
ing-ground. Toward these trampled
circles the scattered steers were one
by one making their way.
"The boys can run in all these
steers tomorrow" said Holden. "You
and /, Jim, are going to twine that
gray steer today"
HE got big scare yesterday; too
sharp to show up on stampin' ground
today" Jim suggested.
"Like enough" Holden assented.
''but we'll rnstle him out. The bows
lost him late yesterday in the long
quaking-asp patch in that gulch up
there, just below the rim-rock.
He pointedto the rim-rock OF tho
spruce ridge, rising yet loftily above