The title maverick was derived from a stock man of that name,
whose practice was to claim _all_ unbranded calves in a
herd. His cowboys would ride about, cutting out the unmarked
animals, with the cool statement:

"That's a maverick," meaning that it belonged to their "boss."

And so the name has commonly become associated with any half-
grown, unbranded calf.

Mr. Merkel was the owner of several ranches, Square M, Triangle B
and Diamond X, not to mention Diamond X Second, or Flume Valley,
of which his son Bud, and the latter's cousins, Norton and
Richard Shannon, were the nominal proprietors.

The cattle from Flume Valley, or "Happy Valley" as Bud called it
after the mystery of the underground water was solved, were in
the round-up with the others from his father's ranches.

For days preceding the lively doings I have just described, the
cowboys, called in from distant ranges, had driven the cattle
toward the central assembling point--the corrals at Diamond X.

Slowly the longhorns, the shorthorns and cattle with no horns at
all, had been "hazed" in from their feeding grounds toward
Diamond X. The cow punchers had galloped hard all day, and they
had ridden herd at night, to keep the animals from straying. At
night this was not so hard, for the animals were glad to rest
during the darkness.