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 hev considered the matter, and hev come to the conclusion that she ain't for export but for home consumption, and that the boy who's to hev her is Jerome Shaylor."

"And what does the lady say?" asked the lawyer.

"Haow?" said Jack blankly.

"What does the lady say?"

"Derned if I know," said Jack hastily. "But that ain't the point. The point is what we say, and what Jerome says; and Jerome is a terror, and mighty cruel to strangers and set agin' 'em. And he reckons that she ain't to be cut out of the herd and branded by a stranger like as if she was a maverick; and he reckons, moreover, that he ain't goin' to stand by and see the iron put on her."

"Indeed," said Remington.

And Jack's enthusiasm for his friend ran away with him.

"Yep and indeedy," said Jack. "He sez he'll fill up any stranger with a fine quality of lead as comes around her corral. She's the flower of the flock and the flower of the prairie, and Jerome says he'll kill and shoot