The object of the fall roundup is to gather in and cut out the fat steers and drive them to the railroad stations for shipment to Eastern markets. The work being almost entirely on adult animals is even more laborious and hazardous than that of the spring, where the majority of animals actually handled are calves. Hard riding, vigorous "cutting," and daring dashes into headstrong, panic-stricken, stampeding herds are necessary here, and roping and dragging out by main strength are hourly occurrences. Branding-irons are also carried along, and any calves missed on the spring roundup, or dropped after it, are subjected to the fiery ordeal, just as their brothers and sisters were at the Mayday party.
Stray cattle, either calves or adults, bearing no brand and found alone or herded with others already branded, but whose parentage can not be definitely determined, are called "Mavericks," and in some districts are sold at auction and the proceeds given to the school fund. In others, they become the property of the man or company upon whose range they are found. This privilege, however, is seriously abused by dishonest ranchmen and cattle thieves, who infest every Western cattle-growing district. These men ride out over the ranges at times when they are not likely to be observed, carrying their branding-irons along, and rope and brand every animal they can find that does not already bear a brand. In some cases these are allowed to remain where found, for the time being, but are usually driven onto the range claimed by the pirate who does the work. In other instances, these men first drive the unbranded stock onto their own ranges, and then, under cover of the Maverick law, openly claim and brand it as their own. Many large herds have been accumulated almost wholly by this system of thievery, and there are wealthy cattlemen in the West to-day who never bought or honestly owned a dozen head of the thousands that bear their brand. A certain cowboy, when asked by an Eastern man what constitutes a Maverick, replied: "It's a calf that you find and get your brand on before the owner finds it and gets his on."
But it is risky business, this cattle stealing, and many a man who has been caught at it has been left on the prairies as food for the coyotes, or has ornamented the nearest cottonwood tree until the magpies and butcher birds have polished his bones.