hand, and at Dave's request, after picking out the extra ones,
continued selecting others in exchange for horses in his old
band. We spent nearly an hour cutting back and forth, or until we
were both satisfied that his saddle stock could not be improved
from the material at hand.

The ranch headquarters were fully six miles from the round-up.
Leaving Sponsilier delighted with the change in his remuda, I
rode to overtake the undivided band which were heading for the
ranch corrals. On coming up with them, Forrest proposed that we
divide the horses by a running cut in squads of ten, and toss for
choice. Once they were in the corrals, this could have been
easily done by simply opening a gate and allowing blocks of ten
to pass alternately from the main into smaller inclosures. But I
was expecting something like this from Quince, and had entirely
different plans of my own. Forrest and I were good friends, but
he was a foxy rascal, and I had never wavered in my determination
to get the pick of that horse herd. Had I accepted his proposal,
the chance of a spinning coin might have given him a decided
advantage, and I declined his proposition. I had a remuda in
sight that my very being had hungered for, and now I would take
no chance of losing it. But on the other hand, I proposed to
Forrest that he might have the assistance of two men in Flood's
outfit who had accompanied the horse herd home from Dodge. In the
selecting of Jim's extra twenty-five, the opinion of these two
lads, as the chosen horses proved, was a decided help to their
foreman. But Quince stood firm, and arguing the matter, we
reached the corrals and penned the band.

The two top bunches were held separate and were left a mile back