"Yo're right!" exclaimed Slim, his eyes glowing with a sudden inspiration. "Where have our brains been all this time? Reckon we was too busy out on our west line to do much thinkin' about other things."
"Yes, an' none of 'em will be much more than three years old," said Cimarron, looking around the room, where various expressions met his eye. "A plumb fine lot of unbranded cattle, runnin' up to three-year-olds, ready for any iron. I've been as dumb as a locoed dogie!"
"Lin," said Gus Thompson, turning to the foreman, "I'm tellin' you that when folks get th' maverick habit, an' ain't bothered, they get so, after a while, that they don't care a whole lot _where_ them mavericks come from; an' you know that there are _some_ parts of our ranch that are plumb heavy with scrub timber, brush, an' rough ground."
"Tell us about Perry's Bend," impatiently demanded Deuce.
"Tell us about yore gran'mother's cat!" snorted Bill Sage. "That can wait: Nelson's goin' to stay here a couple of nights, anyhow." He looked around. "I'm beginnin' to see through th' holes in th' ladder; an' I'm honin' to listen to why th' SV don't show no mavericks, when it ain't had a spring round-up for three years. Does it sleeper?"
"Not an earnotch," interjected Tom Wilkes. "You ought to know that, you flathead; you've seen enough SV cattle, anyhow."
"Mebby Nelson can explain it," suggested the foreman.
"I'm willin' to talk it over, anyhow," said Johnny. "In th' first place, there's natural enemies."
"Then you can leave 'em in th' first place," laughed Slim. "There ain't none, that I knows of, down here."
"Well, then, there's them quicksands," continued Johnny, gravely. "Cattle are plumb fascinated by quicksands----"
"Huh!" snorted Cimarron, "you ain't figgerin' them sands are takin' th' increase of three whole years, are you?"
"Or pickin' mavericks, as a choice?" grunted Matt Webb.
"They'd be so full of bones if they got three years' calves," said Bud, "that you could build a shack on 'em, an' never feel a quiver."
"Well, then, there's th' freezin' cold an' th' ice on th' grass," suggested Johnny, grinning. "We all know that cattle ain't got sense enough to paw through ice to get at th' grass under it."
"Shore!" snorted Slim. "Did we have a freeze-up last winter?" he asked the crowd.