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Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing

John N. Mordeson
Sunil Mathew

Advanced
Topics in
Fuzzy Graph
Theory
Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing

Volume 375

Series editor
Janusz Kacprzyk, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
e-mail: kacprzyk@ibspan.waw.pl
The series “Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing” contains publications on
various topics in the area of soft computing, which include fuzzy sets, rough sets,
neural networks, evolutionary computation, probabilistic and evidential reasoning,
multi-valued logic, and related fields. The publications within “Studies in Fuzziness
and Soft Computing” are primarily monographs and edited volumes. They cover
significant recent developments in the field, both of a foundational and applicable
character. An important feature of the series is its short publication time and
world-wide distribution. This permits a rapid and broad dissemination of research
results.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/2941

John N. Mordeson Sunil Mathew
•

Advanced Topics in Fuzzy

Graph Theory

123
John N. Mordeson Sunil Mathew
Department of Mathematics Department of Mathematics
Creighton University National Institute of Technology
Omaha, NE, USA Calicut, Kerala, India

ISSN 1434-9922 ISSN 1860-0808 (electronic)

Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing
ISBN 978-3-030-04214-1 ISBN 978-3-030-04215-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04215-8

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018961208

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission
or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from
the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or
for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to
jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
John N. Mordeson would like to dedicate the
book to the volunteers of St. James Parish
and St. Vincent de Paul Society.

Sunil Mathew would like to dedicate the book

to his mother Mary, wife Sonia, and children
Ragam and Rahul.
Foreword

At the end of the nineteenth century, G. Cantor introduced his famous set theory
that has been widely accepted as the language of science in general and of math-
ematics in particular and that was based on Aristotle’s binary logic with two truth
values (true and false). For a given universe of discourse X (e.g., students in the first
bachelor mathematics), each crisp property (e.g., male students, students taller than
1m82, students with more than 80% in the final year of secondary school) leads to a
crisp partition of the universe into the (sub)set A of elements of X that satisfy this
property and the remaining (sub)set complement A of elements of X that do not
satisfy this property. Using the logical operations of negation, disjunction, and
conjunction, Cantor defined the set-theoretical operations of complementation,
union, and intersection, leading to new sets (e.g., the set of male students that are
taller than 1m82). However, it is not possible to model imprecise, vague properties
such as tall, clever, slim built, and excellent result on the calculus course in the first
semester. In order to represent such qualitative, imprecise predicates, one has to
specify boundaries. For example, a student is considered tall as soon as his or her
length exceeds 1m85. As a consequence of this artificial boundary, the student that
measures 1m84 will be classified as not tall while practically there is almost no
difference between 1m84 and 1m85. In the same way, a guy of 2m15 will also
belong to the class of tall people! In this respect, we have to cite the so-called
Poincare paradox: Poincare observed that a human cannot determine by hand a
difference between a package of 100gr and one of 101gr, so for a human observer
both packages have the same weight, i.e., they are equal with respect to weight.
Similarly, there is no difference between 101gr and 102gr, and hence, applying the
transitivity property of the equality relation leads to the conclusion that there is no
difference between 100gr and 102gr. It is easy to see that continuing this reasoning
from classical logic induces the silly conclusion that all packages have the same
weight. Similar paradoxes were already known by the old Greeks during the fifth
century B.C., namely the Sorites and Falakros paradox.
I would like to stress the inevitable consequences of binary logic and classical
set theory on mathematics. As soon as the classifier f=g has been introduced—
intuitively or axiomatically—the basic concept of a relation between two sets can

vii
viii Foreword

be defined. Then—too soon to my opinion—the concept of a relation has been

narrowed into a functional one of shortly a function. In particular, a function with
the natural numbers as domain is known as a sequence. The class of sequences is
again divided into two disjoint subsets—the convergent and the non-convergent
sequences. This ongoing bivalent partitioning is very rough as illustrated by the
following example. Consider the sequence (1, −2, 3, −4, 5, …); it is clearly a
non-convergent one. Similarly, the sequence (0.01, −0.01, 0.01, −0.01, 0.01, …) is
also not convergent. So both sequences belong to the same class of non-convergent
real sequences while there is a huge difference between them: The first one is totally
hopeless with respect to being convergent, while the second one is almost con-
vergent to zero. So if convergence could be introduced as a gradual notion (with
more than two degrees), then the second sequence certainly would get a high
degree.
As illustrated so far, there was a big need for mathematical models to represent
and process imprecise and uncertain information. Till 1965, only probability theory
and error calculus were partly able to satisfy the need to handle a special kind
of uncertainty, namely randomness. As stated by Zadeh: Probability theory is
insufficiently expressive to serve as the language of uncertainty. It has no facilities
to describe fuzzy predicates such as small, young, much larger than nor fuzzy
quantifiers such as most, many, a few… nor fuzzy probabilities such as likely, not
very likely… nor linguistic modifiers such as very and more-or-less. We had to wait
till 1965 when L. Zadeh launched his seminal paper “Fuzzy sets.” The concept of a
fuzzy set allows to have besides membership and non-membership, intermediate, or
partial degrees of membership. So instead of black-or-white decisions, a gradual
transition from membership to non-membership has been introduced. I want to say
that I prefer the term “mathematics of fuzziness” instead of “fuzzy mathematics”
because there is nothing fuzzy or blurry in this kind of mathematics!
When I started my research in fuzzy set theory in 1976, only a few hundreds of
papers were published on this theory and hence a very manageable number to start
research in this promising domain. Nowadays, there are more than 115,000 papers
in the INSPEC database with fuzzy in the title and around 30,000 papers in the
MATH.SCI.NET database! After a short dissemination period for Zadeh’s brilliant
concept of fuzzy sets, mathematicians became aware of the enormous possibilities
of this theory for extending the existing mathematical apparatus, especially with
regard to the applications, since this concept embraces the elasticity of natural
language and human’s qualitative summarization capabilities. Probably the first
domain of mathematics that underwent the coloring process was general topology.
Indeed already in 1969, C. L. Chang published his seminal paper “Fuzzy topo-
logical spaces.” Very soon after, that straightforward fuzzyfications of the classical
mathematical concepts based upon union and intersection were given birth: fuzzy
groups, fuzzy vector spaces, fuzzy metric spaces, fuzzy geometries, fuzzy relational
calculus, fuzzy graphs… Most of those papers written in the seventies appeared in
the Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Its Applications. Nowadays, there are
more than 30 international journals with fuzzy in the title! Starting from the
eighties, a new period started in the development of the mathematics of fuzziness:
Foreword ix

Due to the introduction of the notions of triangular norm and co-norm by Schweizer
and Sklar in the framework of probabilistic metric spaces, an explosion of the
possible generalizations of the binary mathematical structures took place, leading to
the introduction of the T–S fuzzy concepts with T a triangular norm and S a
triangular co-norm. Because of the overwhelming literature on fuzzy sets and
related so-called soft computing models such as L-fuzzy sets, rough sets, flou sets,
intuitionistic fuzzy sets, type2 fuzzy sets, interval-valued fuzzy sets, probabilistic
sets, twofold fuzzy sets, gray sets, fuzzy rough sets, soft sets, toll sets, and vague
sets and the increasing number of researchers, there is a big need for good textbooks
and monographs on the basic issues as well as on state-of-the-art volumes.
Already in the first textbook on fuzzy set theory, A. Kaufmann has launched in
1973 the notion of a fuzzy graph, later on fine-tuned by A. Rosenfeld, R. T. Yeh,
and S. Bang such that the level sets of a fuzzy graph are crisp graphs, a frequently
desired property of a fuzzyfied concept or structure. The authors of this book have
substantially contributed to the development and the flourishing of the theory of
fuzzy graphs as can be checked from the many co-authored papers in the references.
The present volume Advanced Topics in Fuzzy Graph Theory written by two
famous experts in fuzzy mathematics and fuzzy graphs in particular concentrates on
a few advanced research items on fuzzy graphs: connectivity and its relation to
Wiener indices and distances, t-norm fuzzy graphs and their operations, and finally
fuzzy graphs based on dialectic synthesis. For newcomers in the field, the authors
provided a short introduction on fuzzy sets. I am very happy to see that the authors
besides strong theoretical contributions also added several interesting applications
on current hot problems such as human trafficking and immigration flows in Europe
and the USA. I want to congratulate the authors Prof. John Mordeson and
Prof. Sunil Mathew for their excellent work and giving us the opportunity to learn
more about the amazing theory of fuzzy graphs.

Ghent, Belgium Etienne E. Kerre

June 2018
Preface

Inspired by Lotfi Zadeh’s seminal work on fuzzy logic, Azriel Rosenfeld developed
cornerstone papers in fuzzy abstract algebra and fuzzy graph theory. This book is
the third book of the authors on fuzzy graph theory. The book is motivated by the
authors’ desire to apply fuzzy mathematics to the problems of human trafficking,
illegal immigration, and modern slavery.
In Chap. 1, we present basic results on fuzzy sets, relations, and graphs that are
needed for the remainder of the book.
In Chap. 2, we concentrate on connectivity concepts of fuzzy graphs. Our work
deals with vertex connectivity, average fuzzy connectivity, and critical blocks. In
particular, we focus mainly on constructions of t-connected graphs, average fuzzy
vertex connectivity, and uniformly connected fuzzy graphs. We apply our results to
the study of human trafficking across the Mexican border into the USA.
In Chap. 3, we concentrate on connectivity and Wiener indices in fuzzy graphs.
We study the relationship between the Weiner index and the connectivity index. We
also introduce the notion of average connectivity index of a fuzzy graph. We apply
our results to the problems of human trafficking, internet routing, and illegal
immigration.
In Chap. 4, we focus on distance and connectivity in fuzzy graphs. We consider
geodesic blocks and monophonic blocks in the first part. Three different distances,
namely geodetic distance, sum distance, and strong sum distance, are introduced,
and several properties are analyzed.
In Chap. 5, we generalize the definition of a fuzzy graph by using an arbitrary
t-norm in place of the t-norm minimum. We do this because a t-norm is sometimes
better than minimum in real world situations. We illustrate this with real-world
applications to human trafficking and modern slavery. We also develop the notion
of a generalized fuzzy relation using a t-norm other than minimum. We consider
operations on fuzzy graphs involving t-norms. We define the composition of fuzzy
relations using t-norms, t-co-norms, and aggregation operators rather than mini-
mum and maximum. We show when results using minimum carryover when using
an arbitrary t-norm and provide examples when it does not. Our data involving
trafficking is taken from the Global Slavery Index and the Walk Free Foundation.

xi
xii Preface

We develop a measure on the susceptibility of trafficking in persons for networks by

using t-norms other than minimum. We also develop a connectivity index for a
fuzzy network. In one application, a high connectivity index means a high sus-
ceptibility to trafficking. In addition, we use norm functions and median functions
to model study situations involving modern slavery.
In Chap. 6, we are interested in developing a new type of fuzzy graph. This
graph is based on the groundbreaking work of Trillas and Garcia Honrado on
dialectic synthesis. Dialectic synthesis is concerned with a method of reasoning by
means of the triplet Thesis–Antithesis–Synthesis triad. We show this method can be
used in fuzzy graph theory and applied to the problems of human trafficking,
modern slavery, and illegal immigration.
The book is dependent on the journals New Mathematics and Natural
Computation, Information Sciences, and Fuzzy Sets and Systems for their support
of our work involving applications to human trafficking, illegal immigration, and
modern slavery.
Acknowledgments. The authors are grateful to the editorial board and production
staffs of Springer International Publishing, especially to Janusz Kacprzyk. The
authors are indebted to George and Sue Haddix for their support of Creighton
University and mathematics of uncertainty. We are also indebted to Etienne Kerre,
Rudolf Seising, and Enric Trillas for their inspiring work.

Omaha, USA John N. Mordeson

Calicut, India Sunil Mathew
Contents

1 Preliminaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Fuzzy Sets and Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Fuzzy Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2 Connectivity in Fuzzy Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... 15
2.1 Vertex Connectivity of Fuzzy Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... 15
2.2 Fuzzy Vertex Connectivity of Complement of a Fuzzy
Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.3 Average Fuzzy Vertex Connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.4 Uniformly t-Connected Fuzzy Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.5 Application to Human Trafficking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.6 Critical Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
2.7 Local Cyclic Cutvertices and Bridges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.8 Critical Blocks and Cycle Connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
2.9 t-Level Components of Fuzzy Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3 Connectivity and Wiener Indices of Fuzzy Graphs . . . . . . . . ...... 55
3.1 Connectivity Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 55
3.2 Bounds for Connectivity Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 57
3.3 Connectivity Index of Edge Deleted and Vertex Deleted
Fuzzy Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.4 Average Connectivity Index of a Fuzzy Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.5 Connectivity Index of Fuzzy Cycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.6 Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.7 Wiener Index of Fuzzy Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
3.8 Relationship Between WI and CI of a Fuzzy Graph . . . . . . . . . . 74
3.9 Wiener Indices of Fuzzy Trees and Fuzzy Cycles . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
3.10 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

xiii
xiv Contents

3.10.1 Human Trafficking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

3.10.2 Internet Routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
3.10.3 Illegal Immigration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
4 Distances and Convexity in Fuzzy Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
4.1 Fuzzy Geodetic Convex Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
4.2 Fuzzy Geodetic Blocks and Their Characterization . . . . . . . . . . . 98
4.3 Fuzzy Geodetic Boundary Vertices and Interior Vertices . . . . . . . 101
4.4 Monophonic Convexity in Fuzzy Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
4.5 Fuzzy Monophonic Blocks and Their Characterization . . . . . . . . 105
4.6 Fuzzy Monophonic Boundary and Interior Vertices . . . . . . . . . . 107
4.7 g-Distance in Fuzzy Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
4.8 Sum Distance in Fuzzy Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
4.9 Boundary and Interior in Sum Distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
4.10 Strong Sum Distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
4.11 Energy of a Fuzzy Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
5 Aggregation Operators and t-Norm Fuzzy Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
5.1 Preliminaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
5.2 t-Norm Fuzzy Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
5.3 Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
5.4 Generalized Fuzzy Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
5.5 Fuzzy Equivalence Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
5.6 Application: Illegal Immigration to the United States
Through Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
5.7 Operations of t-Norm Fuzzy Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
5.8 Quasi-fuzzy Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
5.9 Aggregation Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
5.10    Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
5.11    Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
5.12 Norm and Median Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
5.13 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
5.13.1 Trafficking in Persons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
5.13.2 Linguistic Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
5.13.3 Slavery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
5.14 Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
5.14.1 Vulnerability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
5.14.2 Government Responses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
6 Dialectic Synthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... . . . . . . . . . . 177
6.1 Complementary Dialectic Synthesis . . . . . ....... . . . . . . . . . . 178
6.2 Complementary Fuzzy Dialectic Synthesis Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . 181
6.3 Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... . . . . . . . . . . 190
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
About the Authors

Dr. John N. Mordeson is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Creighton

University. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from Iowa State University. He is
a member of Phi Kappa Phi. He is the president of the Society for Mathematics of
Uncertainty. He has published 17 books and 200 journal articles. He is on the
editorial board of numerous journals. He has served as an external examiner of
Ph.D. candidates from India, South Africa, Bulgaria, and Pakistan. He has refereed
for numerous journals and granting agencies. He is particularly interested in
applying mathematics of uncertainty to combat the problem of human trafficking.

Dr. Sunil Mathew is a Faculty Member in the Department of Mathematics, NIT

Calicut, India. He has acquired his masters from St. Joseph’s College Devagiri,
Calicut, and Ph.D. from NIT Calicut, India, in the area of fuzzy graph theory. He
has published more than 100 research papers and written four books. He is a
member of several academic bodies and associations. He is editor and reviewer of
several international journals. He has an experience of 20 years in teaching and
research. His current research topics include fuzzy graph theory, bio-computational
modeling, graph theory, fractal geometry, and chaos.

xv
Chapter 1
Preliminaries

Aristotle’s two valued logic dominated mathematics for more than 2000 years, until
the polish logician Jan Lukasiewics [141] formulated the multi-valued logic in 1920.
Several people including Kurt Godel were responsible in formulating a multi-valued
logic system in mathematics. Godel’s logic was later known as intermediate logics.
Even though, an infinite valued logic was proposed by Lukasiewics, it was Lotfi A.
Zadeh [268], who came up with the well known fuzzy logic in 1965. He defined
fuzzy sets using degree of memberships to elements in a universal set rather than
full membership to an element in a set. Another mathematician named Dieter Klaua
[128] also has defined fuzzy sets independently in 1965. Kaufman [124], Zadeh
[268] and Salil [219] studied fuzzy relations and their operations. In 1975, Rosenfeld
introduced fuzzy graphs in a systematic way. At the same time Yeh and Bang [264]
also introduced fuzzy graphs independently.

1.1 Fuzzy Sets and Relations

We let N denotes the positive integers and R, the set of all real numbers. If A is a
subset of a set X , we let Ac or X \ A denote the complement of A in X . We let | A |
denote the cardinality of A. We also let ∧ denote infimum and ∨ denote supremum.
In this section, we look at the basics of fuzzy sets and fuzzy relations. In classical
set theory, we use characteristic functions to establish the existence of an element in
a set. If X is a universal set, A is a subset of X and χA : X → {0, 1}, the characteristic
function of A, then an element x ∈ X belongs to the set A if χA (x) = 1 and belongs
to Ac if χA (x) = 0. This definition of a set fails to address questions related with
attributes associated with the set, like quality. This definition allows an element
either in or out, but not partially. Zadeh’s definition allows an element to be partially
in a set. Membership values ranging from 0 to 1 are used for this purpose. The formal
definition of a fuzzy set is given below.

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 1

J. N. Mordeson and S. Mathew, Advanced Topics in Fuzzy Graph Theory,
Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing 375,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04215-8_1
2 1 Preliminaries

Fig. 1.1 A triangular fuzzy

set

2/3

0 1/3 2/3 1
R

Definition 1.1.1 Let X be a set. A fuzzy subset σ of X is a function σ : X → [0, 1].

There are different notations for a fuzzy set used in the literature. We follow the
one by Zadeh. We call σ a fuzzy subset of X . The term subset can be avoided if there
is no confusion about X . We use the term fuzzy set hereafter. If σ is a fuzzy set,
then {x ∈ X : σ(x) > 0} is called the support of σ denoted by σ ∗ . Also if t ∈ [0, 1],
then the t-cut of σ is defined as {x ∈ X : σ(x) ≥ t}. Clearly, a t-cut is a crisp set.
{x ∈ X : σ(x) > t} is called a strong t-cut . Support of a fuzzy set is a strong 0-cut.
A 1-cut is said to be the core of the fuzzy set. The height of a fuzzy set σ is defined
as h(σ) = ∨{σ(x) : x ∈ X } and depth d (σ) = ∧{σ(x) : x ∈ X }. A fuzzy set σ is
normal if h(σ) = 1 and subnormal otherwise.

Example 1.1.2 Let X = {x, y, z, w} and σ : X → [0, 1] be defined by σ(x) = 1,

σ(y) = 0.5, σ(z) = 0.2. Note that this is a normal fuzzy set with depth 0.2 and
σ ∗ = {x, y, z}.

Example 1.1.3 Let X = R. Define σ as in Fig. 1.1.

Here σ is a normal fuzzy set. σ ∗ = (0, 1), σ 2/3 = [1/3, 2/3].
Now we discuss some set theoretical operations for fuzzy sets. If σ and μ are two
fuzzy subsets of a set X , then μ ⊆ ν if for all x ∈ X , μ(x) ≤ ν(x). If μ ⊆ ν and there
exists x ∈ X such that μ(x) < ν(x), we write μ ⊂ ν. We define μ ∩ ν as (μ ∩ ν)(x) =
μ(x) ∧ ν(x) for all x ∈ X . We define μ ∪ ν as (μ ∪ ν)(x) = μ(x) ∨ ν(x) for all x ∈ X .
Intersection and union of two fuzzy sets are examples of wide classes of fuzzy set
operations called triangular norms (t-norms) and triangular conorms (t-conorms)
respectively.

Definition 1.1.3 A function η : [0, 1] × [0, 1] → [0, 1] is called a t-norm if it sat-

isfies the following conditions.
1.1 Fuzzy Sets and Relations 3

(1) η(1, x) = x, ∀x ∈ [0, 1] (Identity element).

(2) η(x, y) = η(y, x), ∀x, y ∈ [0, 1] (Commutativity).
(3) η(x, η(y, z)) = η(η(x, y), z), ∀x, y, z ∈ [0, 1] (Associativity).
(4) w ≤ x and y ≤ z implies η(w, y) ≤ η(x, z), ∀w, x, y, z ∈ [0, 1] (Monotonicity).
Depending on the nature of the function η, there are several classes of t-norms.
For example, if η is continuous, we call η, a continuous t-norm. If it is strictly
monotone and continuous, we call it a strict t-norm.

Example 1.1.4 The following are examples of t-norms.


x ∧ y if x ∨ y = 1,
(1) Drastic t-norm: η(x, y) =
0 otherwise
(2) Lukasiewicz t-norm: η(x, y) = 0 ∨ (x + y − 1).
xy
(3) η(x, y) = 2−(x+y−xy) .
(4) Product t-norm: η(x, y) = xy.
(5) Minimum t-norm: η(x, y) = x ∧ y.
The minimum t-norm in (5) is often called the standard intersection for fuzzy
sets. Also, among all t-norms, drastic t-norm is the smallest and minimum t-norm is
the largest.

Definition 1.1.5 A function ζ : [0, 1] × [0, 1] → [0, 1] is called a t-conorm if it

satisfies the following conditions.
(1) ζ(0, x) = x, ∀x ∈ [0, 1] (Identity element).
(2) ζ(x, y) = ζ(y, x), ∀x, y ∈ [0, 1] (Commutativity).
(3) ζ(x, ζ(y, z)) = ζ(ζ(x, y), z), ∀x, y, z ∈ [0, 1] (Associativity).
(4) w ≤ x and y ≤ z implies ζ(w, y) ≤ ζ(x, z), ∀w, x, y, z ∈ [0, 1] (Monotonic-
ity).

Example 1.1.6 The following are examples of t-conorms.

(1) Standard union: ζ(x, y) = x ∨ y.
(2) Algebraic sum: ζ(x, y) = x + y − xy.
(3) Bounded sum: ζ(x, y) = ⎧ 1 ∧ (x + y).
⎨ x if y = 0,
(4) Drastic union: ζ(x, y) = y if x = 0,
⎩
1 otherwise.
The concept of complement is as follows.

Definition 1.1.7 A function c : [0, 1] → [0, 1] is called a fuzzy complement if the

following conditions hold.
(1) c(0) = 1 and c(1) = 0 (Boundary conditions).
(2) ∀x, y ∈ [0, 1], x ≤ y implies c(x) ≥ c(y) (Monotonicity).
A desirous property for a fuzzy complement c to possess is continuity. Another
is that it be involutive, i.e., ∀x ∈ [0, 1], c(c(x)) = x. An example of an involutive
fuzzy complement is the standard complement, i.e, c(x) = 1 − x for all x ∈ [0, 1].
4 1 Preliminaries

We know that a relation on a set S in the classical sense is a subset of S × S.

Similarly a fuzzy relation on a set S is a fuzzy subset of S × S. Next we define fuzzy
relation on a fuzzy set as follows.

Definition 1.1.8 Let σ be a fuzzy subset of a set S and μ, a fuzzy relation on S. μ is

called a fuzzy relation on σ if μ(x, y) ≤ σ(x) ∧ σ(y) for every x, y ∈ S.

Definition 1.1.9 If S and T are two sets and σ and τ are fuzzy subsets of S and T ,
respectively, then a fuzzy relation μ from the fuzzy subset σ into the fuzzy subset
τ is a fuzzy subset μ of S × T such that μ(x, y) ≤ σ(x) ∧ τ (y) for every x ∈ S and
y ∈ T.

Definition 1.1.10 Let μ : S × T → [0, 1] be a fuzzy relation from a fuzzy subset

σ of S into a fuzzy subset τ of T and ν : T × U → [0, 1] be a fuzzy relation from
the fuzzy subset ρ of T into a fuzzy subset η of U . Define μ ◦ ν : S × U → [0, 1]
by μ ◦ ν(x, z) = ∨{μ(x, y) ∧ ν(y, z) : y ∈ T } for every x ∈ S, z ∈ U . Then μ ◦ ν is
called the max-min composition of μ and ν.
If μ and ν are two fuzzy relations on a fuzzy set σ, then μ ◦ ν is also a fuzzy
relation on σ. Clearly the max-min composition μ ◦ μ is a fuzzy relation on σ. It is
denoted as μ2 . If μ and ν are two fuzzy relations on a finite set S, then for every
t ∈ [0, 1], we have (μ ◦ ν)t = μt ◦ μt .

Definition 1.1.11 If μ is a fuzzy relation defined on a fuzzy subset σ of a set S, then

the complement μc of μ is defined as μc (x, y) = 1 − μ(x, y) for every x, y ∈ S.

Definition 1.1.12 Let μ : S × T → [0, 1] be a fuzzy relation from a fuzzy subset σ

of S into a fuzzy subset ν of T . Then μ−1 : T × S → [0, 1], the inverse of μ from ν
into σ is defined as μ−1 (y, x) = μ(x, y) for all x, y ∈ T × S.
If μ is a fuzzy relation on a fuzzy set σ, defined over S, then μ is said to be reflexive
if μ(x, x) = σ(x) for every x ∈ S. μ is said to be symmetric if μ(x, y) = μ(y, x) for
every x, y ∈ S and transitive if μ2 ⊆ μ. A fuzzy relation μ on a fuzzy subset σ of
a set S is said to be a fuzzy equivalence relation if it is reflexive, symmetric and
transitive.
If μ is reflexive, then μ ⊆ μ2 . It is not hard to see that μ0 ⊆ μ ⊆ μ2 ⊆ μ3 . . . If μ
and ν are two reflexive fuzzy relations, then μ ◦ ν and ν ◦ μ are also reflexive. In this
case μt is reflexive for every t ∈ [0, 1]. Similar results do hold for symmetric and
transitive fuzzy relations. Fuzzy relations have lot of applications in several fields
of decision making [183]. A detailed discussion on fuzzy relations can be found
in [151].

1.2 Fuzzy Graphs

Fuzzy graphs were introduced by Rosenfeld [216] in 1975. It is an intense area of

research today due to its large number of applications in diverse areas of science and
technology. Several people have contributed to the growth of the subject. Most of the
1.2 Fuzzy Graphs 5

elementary results on fuzzy graphs are available in [151, 178], written by the same
authors.
Given a set V , we let E be a subset of V, the power set of V , such that every
set in E contains exactly two elements. If {x, y} ∈ E, we write xy for {x, y}. Clearly
xy = yx.

Definition 1.2.1 A fuzzy graph G = (V, σ, μ) is a triple consisting of a set V , a

fuzzy set σ on V and a fuzzy set μ on E such that μ(xy) ≤ σ(x) ∧ σ(y) for every
x, y ∈ V.

By definition, μ is a fuzzy relation on V . We assume that V is finite, μ is reflexive

and symmetric unless otherwise specified. We denote the underlying graph by G ∗ =
(σ ∗ , μ∗ ) where σ ∗ = {u ∈ V : σ(u) > 0} and μ∗ = {uv ∈ E : μ(uv) > 0}. A fuzzy
graph G = (V, σ, μ) is called trivial if G ∗ is trivial. The elements of σ ∗ are called
vertices of the fuzzy graph and the elements of μ∗ are called the edges. We use the
notations G or G = (σ, μ) to represent a fuzzy graph if the set V is clearly defined.

Definition 1.2.2 A fuzzy graph H = (V, τ , ν) is called a partial fuzzy subgraph of

G = (V, σ, μ) if τ (u) ≤ σ(u) for every vertex u ∈ σ ∗ and ν(uv) ≤ μ(uv) for every
uv ∈ μ∗ . In particular, we call H = (V, τ , ν), a fuzzy subgraph of G = (V, σ, μ)
if τ (u) = σ(u) for every u ∈ τ ∗ and ν(uv) = μ(uv) for every uv ∈ ν ∗ . A fuzzy
subgraph H = (V, τ , ν) is said to span the fuzzy graph G = (V, σ, μ) if τ = σ.
The fuzzy graph H = (V, τ , ν) is called a fuzzy subgraph of G induced by P if
P ⊂ σ ∗ , τ (u) = σ(u) for all u in P and ν(uv) = μ(uv) for every u, v ∈ P.
If G is a fuzzy graph, then corresponding to every t ∈ [0, 1], there is an associated
graph, named as threshold graph of G corresponding to t.

Definition 1.2.3 Let G = (σ, μ) be a fuzzy graph and let 0 ≤ t ≤ 1. Let σ t = {x ∈

σ ∗ : σ(x) ≥ t} and μt = {e ∈ μ∗ : μ(e) ≥ t}. Then H = (σ t , μt ) is a graph with ver-
tex set σ t and edge set μt , called the threshold graph of G corresponding to t.

Proposition 1.2.4 Let G = (σ, μ) be a fuzzy graph and 0 ≤ s < t ≤ 1. Then the
threshold graph (σ t , μt ) is a subgraph of (σ s , μs ).

Example 1.2.5 Consider the fuzzy graph G = (σ, μ) given in Fig. 1.2a with σ ∗ =
{a, b, c, d } and μ∗ = {ab, ac, ad , bc, bd , cd }. A partial fuzzy subgraph and a fuzzy
subgraph of G are given in Fig. 1.2b, a fuzzy subgraph induced by the subset P =
{a, b, c} of σ ∗ and the threshold graph of G corresponding to t = 0.4 are given in
Fig. 1.3.
For G 1 in Fig. 1.2a, τ (d ) = σ(d ) and τ (x) < σ(x) for all other vertices x ∈ σ ∗ .
Also, ν(cd ) = μ(cd ), ν(bd ) = μ(bd ) and ν(e) < μ(e) for all other edges e ∈ μ∗ .
Thus G 1 is a partial fuzzy subgraph of G. Similarly, in G 2 , for every vertex x ∈
τ ∗ , τ (x) = σ(x) and for every edge in ν ∗ , ν(e) = μ(e). Note that G 1 is not a fuzzy
subgraph of G, whereas, G 2 is a partial fuzzy subgraph of G. Also, since τ ∗ = σ ∗ ,
both G 1 and G 2 are spanning fuzzy subgraphs of G.
6 1 Preliminaries

(a) (d, 0.4) 0.3 (c, 0.6)

t t
0.1

0.4 0.5

0.5
t t
(a, 1) 1 (b, 0.8)

(b)
(d, 0.4) (c, 0.5) (d, 0.4) 0.3 (c, 0.6)
0.3
t t t t
0.1

0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5

0.2
t t t t
(a, 0.5) 0.3 (b, 0.5) (a, 1) 1 (b, 0.8)

Fig. 1.2 a Fuzzy graph G in Example 1.2.5, b Partial fuzzy subgraph G 1 and fuzzy subgraph G 2
of G

(c, 0.6) d c
t t t

0.5

0.5
t t t t
(a, 1) 1 (b, 0.8) a b

Fig. 1.3 An induced fuzzy graph G 1 and a threshold graph G 2 of G

When an edge e is deleted from a fuzzy graph G = (σ, μ), the resulting edge
deleted fuzzy graph, denoted by G − e is the fuzzy subgraph H = (τ , ν) defined
 
by τ (x) = σ(x) for every x ∈ σ ∗ , ν(e) = 0 and ν(e ) = μ(e ) for all other edges

e ∈ μ . Similarly the vertex deleted subgraph G − v where v ∈ σ ∗ is defined as
∗

H = (τ , ν), where τ (v) = 0, τ (x) = σ(x) for all other vertices in σ ∗ , ν(vx) = 0 for
every x ∈ σ ∗ and ν(e) = μ(e) for all other edges e ∈ μ∗ .
A path P of length n in a fuzzy graph is a sequence of distinct vertices
u0 , u1 , . . . , un such that μ(ui−1 ui ) > 0, i = 1, 2, . . . , n and the degree of member-
1.2 Fuzzy Graphs 7

ship of a weakest edge in P is defined as its strength. When u0 coincides with un , it

is called a cycle.

Definition 1.2.6 The strength of connectedness between two vertices x and y of a

fuzzy graph G is defined as the maximum of the strengths of all paths between x and
y and is denoted by CONNG (x, y). It is also denoted as μ∞ (x, y). An x − y path P
is called a strongest x − y path if its strength equals CONNG (x, y). A fuzzy graph
G = (σ, μ) is said to be connected if for every x, y ∈ σ ∗ , CONNG (x, y) > 0.
The strength of connectedness between two vertices x and y of a graph network is
commonly referred as the maximum bandwidth between the vertices x and y or the
maximum width between the vertices x and y. It has several applications in internet
routing problems, QoS problems and several other areas [118, 253].
Consider the fuzzy graph given in Example 1.2.5. There are several paths con-
necting a and c. The path abc and the direct edge ac are the strongest a − c paths
and CONNG (a, c) = 0.5.

Proposition 1.2.7 Let G = (σ, μ) be a connected fuzzy graph and H = (τ , ν) be a

partial fuzzy subgraph of G. Then CONNH (x, y) ≤ CONNG (x, y) for every x, y ∈ σ ∗ .

A cycle C is said to be a fuzzy cycle if C has more than one weakest edge. A
cycle C in a fuzzy graph G is called locamin if every vertex of C is adjacent with
a weakest edge of the fuzzy graph G. C is called multimin if it has more than one
weakest edge.
Fuzzy graph G 1 of Fig. 1.3 is a fuzzy cycle and a locamin cycle. But in Fig. 1.2a, the
cycle abcd is neither a fuzzy cycle nor a multimin cycle. Note that in fuzzy cycles
the minimum edge membership value is taken with respect to the cycle, whereas
in locamin and multimin cycles, it is taken with respect to the fuzzy graph. Both
multimin cycles and locamin cycles are fuzzy cycles. But the converse need not be
true.
Consider the fuzzy graph G 1 in Fig. 1.2b. If we replace the μ-value of the edge
bc by 0.2, then C : abcda becomes a fuzzy cycle. But the weakest edge of G is bd
with μ(bd ) = 0.1. So C is neither a locamin cycle nor a multimin cycle.

Definition 1.2.8 Let G = (σ, μ) be a fuzzy graph. An edge xy is called a fuzzy

bridge of G if its removal reduces the strength of connectedness between some
pair of vertices in G. That is, CONNG−e (u, v) < CONNG (u, v) for some u, v ∈ σ ∗ .
Similarly a fuzzy cutvertex w is a vertex in σ ∗ whose removal from G reduces
the strength of connectedness between some pair of distinct vertices different from
w. That is, CONNG−w (u, v) < CONNG (u, v) where u, v ∈ σ ∗ such that u = w = v.
A fuzzy graph is said to be a fuzzy block or simply a block if it has no fuzzy
cutvertices.

Example 1.2.9 Consider the fuzzy graph G = (σ, μ) in Fig. 1.4. Let σ ∗ = {a, b, c,
d , e, f } and σ(u) = 1 for every u ∈ σ ∗ .
8 1 Preliminaries

Fig. 1.4 A fuzzy graph with 0.9

f 0.8 e d
several fuzzy cutvertices and t h
t t
fuzzy bridges

0.5 0.6 0.5

t t t
a 0.4 b 0.4 c

In Fig. 1.4, the encircled vertex e is a fuzzy cutvertex. CONNG (d , f ) = 0.8,

whereas CONNG−e (d , f ) = 0.4. f and d are also fuzzy cutvertices of G. Also, all
the edges except ab and bc are fuzzy bridges of G.
In graphs, at least one of the end vertices of a bridge will be a cutvertex. But this
is not true for fuzzy bridges and fuzzy cutvertices. Next is a useful characterization
for fuzzy bridges of a fuzzy graph.

Theorem 1.2.10 ([216]) Let G = (σ, μ) be a fuzzy graph. Then the following state-
ments are equivalent.
(1) xy is a fuzzy bridge.
(2) CONNG−xy (x, y) < μ(xy).
(3) xy is not the weakest edge of any cycle.

A maximum spanning tree of a connected fuzzy graph G = (σ, μ) is a spanning

fuzzy subgraph T = (σ, ν) of G, which is a tree such that CONNG (u, v) is the
strength of the unique strongest u − v path in T for all u, v ∈ G. Next we have
characterizations for fuzzy cutvertices and fuzzy bridges using maximum spanning
trees of fuzzy graphs.

Theorem 1.2.11 ([238]) A vertex w of a fuzzy graph G = (σ, μ) is a fuzzy cutvertex

if and only if w is an internal vertex of every maximum spanning tree of G.

Theorem 1.2.12 ([238]) An edge uv of a fuzzy graph G = (σ, μ) is a fuzzy bridge

if and only if uv is in every maximum spanning tree of G.

Theorem 1.2.13 ([237]) If w is a common vertex of at least two fuzzy bridges, then
w is a fuzzy cutvertex.

Theorem 1.2.14 ([237]) If uv is a fuzzy bridge, then CONNG (u, v) = μ(uv).

Definition 1.2.15 An edge xy of a fuzzy graph G is called strong if its weight is

at least as great as the connectedness of its end vertices in the edge deleted fuzzy
subgraph G − xy. If xy is a strong edge, then x and y are said to be strong neighbors.
A vertex z is called a fuzzy endvertex if it has exactly one strong neighbor in G. An
x − y path P is called a strong path if P contains only strong edges.
1.2 Fuzzy Graphs 9

The degree of a vertex v is defined as d (v) = μ(uv). The minimum degree of
u=v
G is δ(G) = ∧{d (v) : v ∈ σ ∗ } and the maximum degree of G is (G) = ∨{d (v) :
v ∈ σ ∗ }. The strong degree of a vertex v ∈ σ ∗ is defined as the sum of membership
by ds (v). Also if Ns (v) denotes
values of all strong edges incident at v. It is denoted
the set of all strong neighbors of v, then ds (v) = μ(uv). The minimum strong
u∈Ns (v)
degree of G is δs (G) = ∧{ds (v) : v ∈ σ ∗ } and maximum strong degree of G is
s (G) = ∨{ds (v) : v ∈ σ ∗ }.
For the fuzzy graph G in Example 1.2.9, δs (G) = 0.5 and s (G) = 2.3. Note
that the strong degree of a vertex is always less than or equal to its degree.
Definition 1.2.16 A connected fuzzy graph G = (σ, μ) is a fuzzy tree if it has a
fuzzy spanning subgraph F = (σ, ν), which is a tree, where for all edges xy not in
F there exists a path from x to y in F whose strength is more than μ(xy).
Note that F is the unique maximum spanning tree of G. Also, if G is not connected,
and satisfies the property of Definition 1.2.16, then it is called a fuzzy forest.
Definition 1.2.17 A connected fuzzy graph G = (σ, μ) is a complete fuzzy graph
if μ(xy) = σ(x) ∧ σ(y) for every x and y in σ ∗ .
The fuzzy graph G 2 in Fig. 1.2b is a fuzzy tree. A complete fuzzy graph is given
in Example 1.2.18.
Example 1.2.18 Let G = (σ, μ) be the fuzzy graph given in Fig. 1.5 with | σ ∗ |=
4, defined as σ(a) = 0.5, σ(b) = 0.6, σ(c) = 0.7, σ(d ) = 1. For every u, v ∈ σ ∗ ,
μ(uv) = σ(u) ∧ σ(v). G is a complete fuzzy graph.

Theorem 1.2.19 ([53]) If G = (σ, μ) is a complete fuzzy graph, then for any edge
uv ∈ μ∗ , CONNG (u, v) = μ(uv).
It follows from Theorem 1.2.19 that a complete fuzzy graph has no fuzzy cutver-
tices. But it can have fuzzy bridges. It is proved that there can be at most one fuzzy
bridge in a complete fuzzy graph.

Fig. 1.5 A complete fuzzy

(d, 1) 0.7 (c, 0.7)
graph t t
0.6

0.5 0.6

0.5
t t
(a, 0.5) 0.5 (b, 0.6)
10 1 Preliminaries

Proposition 1.2.20 ([216]) Let G be a connected fuzzy graph. If there is at most one
strongest path between any two vertices of G, then G is a fuzzy tree.
Proposition 1.2.21 ([216]) If G = (σ, μ) is a fuzzy tree, then the edges of its maxi-
mum spanning tree F = (τ , ν) are just the fuzzy bridges of G.
Theorem 1.2.22 ([182]) Let G = (σ, μ) be a fuzzy graph such that G ∗ is a cycle.
Then G is a fuzzy cycle if and only if G is not a fuzzy tree.
Theorem 1.2.23 ([237]) Let G = (σ, μ) be a connected fuzzy graph with no fuzzy
cycles. Then G is a fuzzy tree.
Theorem 1.2.24 ([237]) If G is a fuzzy tree, then the internal vertices of F are fuzzy
cutvertices of G.
Theorem 1.2.25 ([237]) Let G = (σ, μ) be a fuzzy graph. Then G is a fuzzy tree if
and only if the following conditions are equivalent for all u, v ∈ V.
(1) uv is a fuzzy bridge.
(2) CONNG (u, v) = μ(uv).
Theorem 1.2.26 ([237]) A fuzzy graph is a fuzzy tree if and only if it has a unique
maximum spanning tree.
Based on the strength of connectedness between the end vertices of an edge, edges
of fuzzy graphs can be divided into three categories as given below.
Definition 1.2.27 ([158]) An edge xy in a fuzzy graph G = (σ, μ) is called α-strong
if μ(xy) > CONNG−xy (x, y), β-strong if μ(xy) = CONNG−xy (x, y) and δ-edge if
μ(xy) < CONNG−xy (x, y).
The δ-edges of a fuzzy graph G, whose μ values are more than that of the weakest
edge of G are called δ ∗ -edges. A path in a fuzzy graph is called an α-strong path
if all its edges are α-strong and is said to be a β-strong path if all its edges are
β-strong.
Definition 1.2.28 ([149]) Let G = (σ, μ) be a fuzzy graph. G is said to be α-
saturated, if at least one α-strong edge is incident at every vertex v ∈ σ ∗ . G is
called β-saturated, if at least one β-strong edge is incident at every vertex.
G is called saturated, if it is both α-saturated and β-saturated. That is, at least
one α-strong edge and one β-strong edge is incident on every vertex v ∈ σ ∗ . Also a
fuzzy graph which is not saturated is called unsaturated.
Example 1.2.29 Consider the fuzzy graph given in Fig. 1.6. It has all three type of
edges. Moreover, it contains δ ∗ -edges.
Note that the type of an edge cannot be determined by just looking at the member-
ship value. In Fig. 1.6, μ(eb) = 0.1 and eb is a δ-edge, but edges bc and ce also have
membership values 0.1 and they are β-strong edges. Also, ae is a δ ∗ -edge since its
μ value is greater than that of the weakest edge of the fuzzy graph. There are many
α-strong paths, β-strong paths and even δ-paths in G, but G is unsaturated.
1.2 Fuzzy Graphs 11

Fig. 1.6 Fuzzy graph with

d t 1 e 0.1
all types of edges t tc
α β
β
0.6 0.1
0.1
α 0.3

t t
a 0.5 α b

Theorem 1.2.30 ([158]) Let G = (σ, μ) be a fuzzy graph. Then an edge xy of G is

a fuzzy bridge if and only if it is α-strong.

Theorem 1.2.31 ([158]) A connected fuzzy graph G is a fuzzy tree if and only if it
has no β-strong edges.

Theorem 1.2.32 ([158]) An edge xy of a fuzzy tree G = (σ, μ) is α-strong if and

only if xy is an edge of the maximum spanning tree F = (σ, ν) of G.

Theorem 1.2.33 ([158]) A complete fuzzy graph has no δ-edges.

Definition 1.2.34 Let G = (σ, μ) be a connected fuzzy graph. A set of vertices

X = {v1 , v2 , . . . , vm } ⊂ σ ∗ is said to be a fuzzy vertex cut or fuzzy node cut
(FNC) of G if either, CONNG−X (x, y) < CONNG (x, y) for some pair of vertices
x, y ∈ σ ∗ such that both x, y = vi for i = 1, 2, . . . , m or G − X is trivial.
Let X be a fuzzy  vertex cut of G. The strong weight of X , denoted by s(X ) is
defined as s(X ) = μ(xy), where μ(xy) is the minimum of the weights of strong
x∈X
edges incident at x.

Definition 1.2.35 The fuzzy vertex connectivity of a connected fuzzy graph G is

defined as the minimum strong weight of fuzzy vertex cuts of G. It is denoted by
κ(G).

Definition 1.2.36 Let G = (σ, μ) be a fuzzy graph. A set of strong edges E =

{e1 , e2 , . . . , en } where ei = ui vi , i = 1, 2, . . . , n is said to be a fuzzy edge cut or
fuzzy arc cut (FAC) of G if either CONNG−E (x, y) < CONNG (x, y) for some pair
of vertices x, y ∈ σ ∗ with at least one of x or y different from both ui and vi , i =
1, 2, . . . , n, or G − E is disconnected.
If there are n edges in E, then it is called an n-FAC. Among all fuzzy edge cuts,
an edge cut with one edge (1-FAC) is a special type of fuzzy bridge, called a fuzzy
bond. At least one of the end vertices of a fuzzy bond is always a fuzzy cutvertex.
The strong weight of a fuzzy edge cut E is defined as s (E) = μ(ei ).
ei ∈E
12 1 Preliminaries

Definition 1.2.37 The fuzzy edge connectivity κ (G) of a connected fuzzy graph
G is defined to be the minimum strong weight of fuzzy edge cuts of G.
Theorem 1.2.38 ([156]) In a fuzzy tree G = (σ, μ), κ(G) = κ (G) = ∧{μ(xy) : xy
is a strong edge in G}.
Theorem 1.2.39 ([156]) In a connected fuzzy graph G = (σ, μ), κ(G) ≤ κ (G) ≤
δs (G).
In a CFG, G = (σ, μ), κ(G) = κ (G) = δs (G).
Definition 1.2.40 Let u and v be any two vertices of a fuzzy graph G = (σ, μ)
such that the edge uv is not strong. A subset S ⊆ σ ∗ of vertices is said to be a u − v
strength reducing set of vertices if CONNG−S (u, v) < CONNG (u, v), where G − S
is the fuzzy subgraph of G obtained by removing all vertices in S.
Similarly, a set of edges E ⊆ μ∗ is said to be a u − v strength reducing set of
edges if CONNG−E (u, v) < CONNG (u, v) where G − E is the fuzzy subgraph of G
obtained by removing all edges in E.
Theorem 1.2.41 ([155]) (Generalization of the vertex version of Menger’s Theo-
rem) Let G = (σ, μ) be a fuzzy graph. For any two vertices u, v ∈ σ ∗ such that uv
is not strong, the maximum number of internally disjoint strongest u − v paths in G
is equal to the number of vertices in a minimal u − v strength reducing set.
Definition 1.2.42 Let G be a connected fuzzy graph and t ∈ (0, ∞). G is called
t-connected if κ(G) ≥ t and G is called t-edge connected if κ (G) ≥ t.
Theorem 1.2.43 ([155]) Let G be a connected fuzzy graph. Then G is t-connected
if and only if mCONNG (u, v) ≥ t for every pair of vertices u and v in G, where m is
the number of internally disjoint strongest u − v paths in G.
Theorem 1.2.44 ([155]) Let G be a connected fuzzy graph. Then G is t-edge con-
nected if and only if mCONNG (u, v) ≥ t for every pair of vertices u and v in G,
where m is the number of edge disjoint strongest u − v paths in G.
Definition 1.2.45 Let G = (σ, μ) be a fuzzy graph. Then for any two vertices u and
v of G, there associated a set θ(u, v) called the θ-evaluation of u and v defined as
θ(u, v) = {α : α ∈ (0, 1], where α is the strength of a strong cycle passing through
both u and v}.
Note that if there are no strong cycles passing both u and v, then θ(u, v) = φ.
Definition 1.2.46 Let G = (σ, μ) be a fuzzy graph. Then, ∨{α|α ∈ θ(u, v); u, v ∈
σ ∗ }, is defined as the cycle connectivity between u and v in G and denoted by
G
Cu,v . If θ(u, v) = φ for some pair of vertices u and v, define the cycle connectivity
between u and v to be 0.
Example 1.2.47 Let G = (σ, μ) be with σ ∗ = {a, b, c, d } with σ(a) = 0.7, σ(b) =
0.6, σ(c) = 0.5, σ(d ) = 0.4 and μ(ab) = 0.6, μ(bc) = μ(ac) = 0.5, μ(bd ) =
μ(cd ) = μ(da) = 0.4 (Fig. 1.7). Here G is a complete fuzzy graph. θ{a, c} =
{0.4, 0.5} and hence Ca,c
G
= 0.5
1.2 Fuzzy Graphs 13

Fig. 1.7 Example-Cycle (a, 0.7) 0.6 (b, 0.6)

connectivity t t
0.4

0.4 0.5

0.5
t t
(d, 0.4) 0.4 (c, 0.5)

Theorem 1.2.48 A cycle C in a fuzzy graph G is called a strongest strong

cycle(SSC) if C is the union of two strongest strong u − v paths for every pair
of vertices u and v in C except when uv is a fuzzy bridge of G in C.

Theorem 1.2.49 ([151]) Let G = (σ, μ) be a fuzzy cycle. Then the following are
equivalent.

(1) G is either saturated or β-saturated.

(2) G is a block.
(3) G is a strongest strong cycle (SSC).
(4) G is a locamin cycle.

Theorem 1.2.50 ([151]) Let Cn be a fuzzy cycle. Then it is saturated if and only if
the following two conditions are satisfied.
(1) n = 2k, where k is an integer.
(2) α-strong and β-strong edges appear alternatively on Cn .
Chapter 2
Connectivity in Fuzzy Graphs

As mentioned before, fuzzy graphs are finding numerous applications today. Most
of them are in different types of natural and man-made networks. Widest path prob-
lems in transportation networks, maximum band width and bottleneck problems in
computer networks, etc. are well known. These problems existed in applied fields
long before, in procedural and algorithmic forms. But after the introduction of fuzzy
graphs, a better solid mathematical theory evolved. Connectivity is one of the major
themes of fuzzy graph theory. Both the introductory papers written in 1975 by Rosen-
feld [216] and Yeh and Bang [264] were focussed at this theme. Later fuzzy vertex

connectivity κ, fuzzy edge connectivity κ and t-connected fuzzy graphs were intro-
duced in [156]. This chapter primarily focusses on constructions of t-connected fuzzy
graphs, average fuzzy vertex connectivity and uniformly connected fuzzy graphs.
Concepts like critical blocks and t-components are also discussed towards the end.
Most of the results in this chapter are from [32].

2.1 Vertex Connectivity of Fuzzy Graphs

There are two types of connectivity in fuzzy graphs; namely vertex connectivity and
edge connectivity. In this section, we focuss only on the vertex connectivity. The
study of vertex connectivity can help in identifying vulnerable vertices in networks
avoiding bottlenecks and traffic delays.
It was Yeh and Bang [264], who introduced the concept of vertex connectivity in
fuzzy graphs for the first time. But the definition provided by them were more oriented
towards disconnection of the fuzzy graph. A generalized definition for fuzzy vertex
connectivity was given in [156]. It is given in Definition 1.2.35. Most of the results
discussed in this section are based on this Definition. Fuzzy vertex connectivity of
a trivial fuzzy graph or a disconnected fuzzy graph is defined as 0. In [156], two
extreme cases have been discussed. It is proved that the fuzzy vertex connectivity of
a complete fuzzy graph G is the minimum strong degree δs (G) of G and that of a
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 15
J. N. Mordeson and S. Mathew, Advanced Topics in Fuzzy Graph Theory,
Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing 375,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04215-8_2
16 2 Connectivity in Fuzzy Graphs

fuzzy tree G is ∧{μ(xy) : xy is a strong edge in G}. The following result is related
to the fuzzy vertex connectivity of a fuzzy cycle.
Theorem 2.1.1 Let G = (σ, μ) be a fuzzy cycle with |σ ∗ | ≥ 3. If no two α-strong
edges of G are adjacent, then κ(G) = 2μ(xy), where xy is a weakest edge of G,
otherwise κ(G) = μ(uv), if μ(uv) < 2μ(xy), else κ(G) = 2μ(xy), where xy is a
weakest edge of G and uv is an edge with minimum μ value among all α-strong
edges adjacent with one another.
Proof Let G = (σ, μ) be a fuzzy cycle with |σ ∗ | ≥ 3. If G has no α-strong edges,
then κ(G) = 2μ(xy), where xy is a weakest edge of G.
Case 1. G has α-strong edges and no two of them are adjacent.
In this case, G has no fuzzy cut vertices and hence is a block. By Theorem 2.8.4
of [151], G is a locamin cycle. Hence minimum of μ values at each vertex of G is
μ(xy), where xy is a weakest edge of G.
If no two β-strong edges of G are adjacent, then every vertex of G is incident with
exactly one α-strong edge and exactly one β-strong edge. Each pair of non adjacent
vertices form fuzzy vertex cuts of G. Let X = {u, v} where u and v are two non
adjacent vertices of G. Then, s(X ) = 2μ(xy), where xy is a weakest edge of G. As
mentioned, any other 2-FNC of G will have the same strong weight.
Suppose uv and vw are two β-strong edges that are adjacent. Then X = {u, w}
is a fuzzy vertex cut of G with strong weight s(X ) = 2μ(xy). Thus in any case
κ(G) = 2μ(xy).
Case 2. G has α-strong edges and some of them are adjacent.
Vertices common to two or more α-strong edges form 1-fuzzy vertex cuts of G.
Let X = {v} be a 1-fuzzy vertex cut with minimum strong weight s(X ) = μ(uv).
Since G is a fuzzy cycle, it has at least two weakest edges. Non adjacent pairs of
vertices form 2-fuzzy vertex cuts for G. In particular non adjacent end vertices of
weakest edges form a 2-fuzzy vertex cut and this fuzzy vertex cut has the minimum
strong weight. Let Y = {x, z} be a 2-fuzzy vertex cut with minimum strong weight. If
s(X ) < s(Y ), then κ(G) = μ(uv), otherwise κ(G) = 2μ(xy), where xy is a weakest
edge of G. 
Next we have an obvious, but important result.
Theorem 2.1.2 Let H = (σ, ν) be a partial fuzzy subgraph of the fuzzy graph G =
(σ, μ). Then κ(H ) ≤ κ(G).
Note that the vertex set σ of H is the same as that of G. Theorem 2.1.2 is not true
for every partial fuzzy subgraph of G. For the fuzzy graph G in Fig. 2.1, fuzzy vertex
connectivity is 0.5 whereas fuzzy vertex connectivity of its partial fuzzy subgraph
H is 2.
The next result is important because we can increase the vertex connectivity of a
fuzzy graph as desired by adding new vertices and edges as explained in the proof
of Theorem 2.1.3.
Other documents randomly have
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD ROSES: A

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“THE SPLENDID MOUNTAIN STREAM WAS A
NEVER ENDING DELIGHT”

WILD ROSES
A Tale
of the Rockies
BY
 HOWARD R. DRIGGS

UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING COMPANY

CHICAGO AND LINCOLN

Copyright, 1916, by
THE UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING COMPANY
All Rights Reserved

To My Mother
WHO LOVED THE WILD ROSES
 CONTENTS
CHAPTER TITLE PAGE
I. A Cowboy Celebration 1
II. New Trails 15
III. Morgan’s Dance 28
IV. Fire Water 42
V. Fisherman’s Luck 52
VI. Ankanamp 65
VII. Mountaineer Memories 75
VIII. Remembering the Early Days 83
IX. After the Ball 99
X. Companionship 110
XI. Mountain Fun 120
XII. Among the Tepees 129
XIII. At Shadow Pool 138
XIV.At the Old Shack 147
XV. The Fatal Throw 161
XVI. The Roundup 166
XVII. Ranch Roses 177
XVIII. By the Cabin Fire 196
XIX. In the Heart of the Hills 204
XX. A Turn in the Trail 221
XXI. The End of the Long Trail 233
WILD ROSES
 Chapter I

A COWBOY CELEBRATION

S OME unpoetic old frontiersman first called the place a trapper’s

“hole,”—an ugly, misleading name for this wondrous mountain valley,
lying up there on the western slopes of the Continental Divide next to
the Yellowstone country, almost surrounded by a rim of craggy, snow-
streaked mountains, and grassy, wooded hills, out of whose picturesque
canyons streams came leaping and sparkling to make a silvery network over
the valley floor and to combine at last into the beautiful river that winds
along the base of the western hills. This web of streams may still be traced
as one gets a kind of bird’s-eye view of it from the hills above; but
irrigation has given a conventional aspect to the valley floor by checkering
it with farms, dotting it with regularly laid out towns and cities, and
marking it with surveyors’ roads and canals.
Some thirty years ago, when the first wave of colonization broke over
the rim of this valley, it was still nature’s playground, the haunt of herds of
antelope, elk and deer. A few widely scattered ranch shacks, a trapper’s hut
or two, with occasionally a group of tepees, pitched temporarily by some
wandering band of Indians, were the only human habitations within its
borders.
There were no garden roses in the valley then, but the wild ones ran riot
along the streams among a tangle of thorns, sending their sweet fragrance
everywhere.
In that not-so-long-ago time, one day in July, the month of roses there,
the valley lay dozing under the spell of the noontide heat. A warm haze
spread over the drowsy hills; the cooling canyon breezes were asleep; even
the quaking aspens were still; the sky was cloudless; there was nothing to
keep the sun from pouring down all of its rays fiercely upon the scene.
To escape its scorching heat, everything had sought the shade except the
grasshoppers and locusts; they were reveling in the burning brightness,
dancing and singing all over the grassy and sage-spread flats.
 The cowboys at the Bar B ranch were sprawled about on their bunks,
sleeping after their noonday meal—all but Jim Hardy. He stood out under
the porch-like projection of the old log shack, making faces at himself in a
broken mirror as he worked with a dull razor to shave the brown stubble off
his square-set jaws and chin. Topsy and Rock, the ranch dogs, lay near him,
lazily snapping at the buzzing flies.
When the scraping process was done, Jim rubbed his persecuted face to
comfort it a little, and then stepped inside of the shack to get a drink. As he
was enjoying his second cup of coolness, his attention was suddenly turned
on Dick Davis, lying there with his half-open mouth emitting a purring
snore. The spirit of rough fun, always strong in Jim, found expression as
usual; he dashed the rest of the cup of water into Dick’s face.
Dick jumped up choking and sputtering and swearing at his tormentor,
who stood laughing over his victim’s discomfiture.
“It’s a hill of a racket ye’re makin’,” said Pat Kelsey, the cook; “can’t ye
let a feller slape a little?”
“Oh, cut out your sleepin’; let’s do some celebratin’. Have you forgotten
it’s the glorious Fourth of July? Come, have a drink with me, Pat.” He
dashed a cup of water into the waking Irishman’s face.
“Ye dirty son of a Yankee!” blurted Pat, jumping up, and making for the
joker; “it’s auld Ireland that can lick you, if auld England didn’t.”
“Stop, or I’ll shoot,” said Jim, jerking a flask of whisky out of his hip
pocket, and pointing it at the wrathful cook.
“Be jabers, if it’s loaded,” said Pat, checking himself, “I’ll give up.”
He grabbed the bottle out of Jim’s hand, uncorked it, and said, “Here’s to
Ameriky, the land that Saint Patrick Henry didicated to liberty.” Then he
took a long drink and smacked his lips.
The rest of the boys, roused by the noise, were laughing over the fun.
“Pass the bottle around, Pat,” said Jim; “drink hearty, boys.”
Every one but Dan Miller and Fred Benton took a drink; they passed the
bottle on with thanks.
“Oh, will, boys,” said Pat, “there’s more for them as likes it.” He raised
the bottle and took another drink.
A wild thumping of horses’ hoofs was heard outside. The boys jumped
up and reached the door just as a band of half-tipsy cowboys from Morgan’s
and other ranches, with Bud Nixon at their head, charged up to the shack.
They checked their ponies with a suddenness that sent the gravel flying in
front of them.
“Hello, you stags!” shouted Nixon; “got anything to drink?”
“Sure an’ we have,” returned Pat; “bring the bucket, Tiddy, and water
’em.”
“Oh, to hell with your water; give us some whisky.”
“Well, seein’s it’s you,” said Jim, reaching up the flask. It soon went the
rounds and returned empty.
“Got any race horses?” said Nixon.
“Yes, a whole herd of ’em that can kick dust in your eyes.”
“Talk’s cheap, but it takes money to buy whisky. Bet ye my bridle ’gin
yours that my horse can outrun yours.”
“It’s a go. Your bridle’s mine,” said Jim, starting for the barn, while the
rest of the boys continued bantering one another and matching their ponies
for other races.
A race track, about a quarter of a mile stretch along the dusty road, was
chosen. Dick Davis and Bill Peters were selected as starters. Dan Miller and
Tick Johnson were the judges. Pat was elected stakeholder.
The first race was between Silver Bill, one of the blooded animals of the
Morgan ranch, and Tex, Jim’s best saddle horse. The two cowboys, with
saddles and with chaps on, jogged off to the starting place and began to play
for a good start.
Suddenly they whirled and leaped together across the line towards the
goal, the eager riders leaning low with quirts flying. Jim’s horse held an
easy lead for nearly half the way, then he lost it, the longer-winded roan
gradually slipping up and past him. When they dashed by the judges, Bud
was full two rods ahead.
“You made me eat dirt square enough,” said Jim, jerking off his silver-
mounted bridle and tossing it to Bud. “That’s a good horse you’ve got.”
“Yes, ’n he kin beat any cayuse in this hole,” boasted Bud.
“Got anything beside talk to stake on that?”
“My saddle ’gin yours.”
 “Pull ’er off, and stack her here with mine.” Jim loosed the cinches as he
spoke, jerked off his saddle and flung it over by Pat.
“Here, Teddy, get your little mare. Let’s take the cackle out of this crow.”
“All right, Jim, if you say so; but I don’t know what Brownie can do.
I’ve never run a race with her.”
“That’s my risk. Get yer mare.”
Fred went back to the shack, took a pan of oats, and walked over to the
pasture bars to call Brownie. Hearing him, she raised her pretty head and
trotted nimbly up to him. He threw his arm over her glossy neck while she
enjoyed the taste of grain, then slipped the bit into her willing mouth,
leaped on her and rode over to the boys.
He reached them just in time to see a “joke race” pulled off between
Freckles, a pinto squaw pony belonging to Hen Sikes, a big cow-puncher
from the Morgan ranch, and Meg Murphy, a tall and lanky old mare that Pat
had purchased for five dollars from a stranded emigrant who was passing
through the valley. It was a comical sight to see the plump cook perched on
his high-backed steed, his smooth face held sober, but his bright eyes
twinkling with fun; and beside him tall Hen, with his long legs dangling
almost to the ground over the little pony’s back. The race was funnier still.
The cowboys howled and whooped to see the two coming, Pat making
clown antics to keep his big mare going; the little Indian pony struggling to
carry his big load through first; but in spite of all Pat’s efforts, Freckles won
the race, leaving Meg full fifty yards behind.
“Home at last!” cried Pat as he reined his mare, galloping stiffly, to a
sudden standstill at the finish. “Give us a drink to cheer our droopin’
spirits.”
“Have a swig on me,” said Bud; “I kin stan’ it, fer we’re goin’ to skin
you good and proper to-day.”
“Not so sure of that,” said Jim; “here, Teddy, let me fix things for you.”
“Goin’ to ride ’er stripped, air ye?” said Bud, as Jim began to put a
surcingle around the mare and over Fred’s knees. “Well, tie the kid on tight,
for I’m—goin’ to—sha—shake ’im up.” He took another drink of whisky.
“You’d better tie yourself on, old soak.”
“Oh, I kin stick all right,—all right,” said Nixon, staggering toward his
horse, “and I’ll beat thet cow-kid so fer he’ll never know he started. Gimme
a leg up, Ticky, ole boy.” Tick helped Bud to mount, and he rode off with
Fred toward the starting point, swaggering and boasting all the way.
They had to do a good deal of jockeying to get a fair start. Silver Bill,
naturally nervous after his first race, was driven frantic by his tipsy rider,
who thrashed the beautiful little animal unmercifully with his quirt. For half
a dozen times they tried to get off, and as many times Dick shouted Bud
back, until he got angry and began to curse both Dick and Fred; but finally
they managed to get over the line with Brownie about a neck ahead.
“Go,” shouted Dick, and down the track they flew. The little mare,
without a touch from her rider, held her lead until they were almost to the
finish, then leaping in response to a sharp cut from Fred’s quirt, she spurted
ahead and came across the line an easy winner. The Bar B boys threw their
hats in the air and yelled like Comanches.
When the riders had slowed down and turned back, Nixon broke out
with his cursing again, and galloped into the crowd sputtering and swearing
and accusing Dick and Fred of foul play.
The winning crowd checked their jubilant expressions and turned on
him.
“Here, you calf, stop your bellerin’ and take your medicine,” said Jim.
“What about the start?” asked Dan, as the starters rode up.
“Fair enough!” returned Dick.
“You’re a liar,” shouted Bud.
Dick leaped from his horse and started for Nixon, who was bristling for
a fight.
“Hold on, boys!” shouted Dan, pointing down the road.
The opponents checked themselves and looked up to see two ranch girls
galloping towards them. It was Alta Morgan, of the Morgan ranch, and
Sally Johnson, the daughter of the game warden. They were riding around
the valley to invite everybody to come to the dance at Morgan’s that night.
As they dashed up to the crowd, the cowboys received them with whoops of
welcome. Their coming suggested a new hope to Nixon.
“Here’s the pony that can beat the cow-kid’s mare,” he said. “You’re just
in time to sa—to save the day, little gal.”
“What do you mean?” asked Alta.
 “I mean that—that Silver Bill’s got beat, and you’ve got to save the rep
—rep-u-tashun of the Morgan ranch; you got to do it.”
“How?”
“By racin’ Eagle agin’ that Brown mouse over thar. Come, now, show
’em your spunk, little one—show ’em your spunk.”
“What, ride in a race?”
“Sure!”
“Well, I never did such a thing; but if the Morgan name is at stake, I’m
ready.”
A lusty cheer greeted the girl’s decision. The boys began to lay their
wagers. Hats, spurs, chaps, bridles, shirts, kerchiefs, saddles and even
horses were put at stake, while Alta, laughing nervously, made ready for the
race. Fred also was excited. To ride any race is enough to make one a little
nervous, but to be matched against a dashing girl, and a stranger at that, was
a thrilling experience.
“I’m going to win the race,” said Alta, throwing a smile at him.
“I hope you do,” he said gallantly, “but I’ll give you a merry chase.”
“All right, come on!”
She was a picture of animation, as they cantered away together,—
graceful, alert, eager for the fun, her pretty cheeks glowing and her eyes
laughing.
His bright eyes were dancing too; and his frank face was flushing, from
the thrill of blended emotions that were stirring his heart.
Eagle and Brownie seemed to sense that something unusual was in the
air, but they both held their nerves responsive to their riders’ wills.
“Get ready,” cried Dick.
They turned their horses toward the north, riding in that direction a few
rods; then they whirled close together, and the little animals leaped back,
head to head across the line; and head to head they stayed as they flashed
along the track. Alta’s hat flew off, her hair was flying in the breeze. They
both were leaning forward in excitement and eagerness as the fleet little
horses strained every nerve and muscle to win.
The cowboys yelled their wild delight to see them coming, nose to nose,
nearer and nearer, heads low, hoofs fluttering, the result in doubt until
almost at the finish, when Alta cried, “Win, Eagle, win!”
The little dapple-gray pony leaped in response, and forged half a neck
ahead of his glossy brown rival, and he held this slight lead till they shot
over the line, past the excited faces of the yelling cowboys crowded close to
see the finish. The riders gradually slowed down to an easy gallop, then
turned round together to canter back.
“Fine!” cried Fred; “I’m so glad you won.”
“I said I would; but you certainly gave us a close chase. Oh, wasn’t it
fun?” She threw another joyous smile at him; her eyes were dancing with
delight, as they rode up to the cheering crowd. The losers were as happy as
the winners. The race was worth the money. And they really wanted her to
win, for Alta was a great favorite among them.
“You’re full of grit and ginger, little gal,” said Jim, reaching out his big
hand.
“A regular trump,” said Sally, giving her a big squeeze.
“A quane o’ hearts!” put in Pat gallantly.
“Oh, thank you, thank you! It was heaps o’ fun,” responded Alta; “and
now I want you all to have some more fun. Will you come to our dance to-
night? Everybody is invited.”
“We’ll sure be there!” shouted the boys, as the girls turned to gallop
away.
“I speak for the first dance with you, Miss Morgan,” said Dick.
“You may have it,” responded Alta, laughingly,—“to pay for giving us
such a fine start. Good-by.”
They waved their hands at the admiring group of boys and dashed away.
An ugly, jealous look flashed out of Bud Nixon’s eyes when Dick spoke
up so smartly to get first place that night with Alta.
“You’d better go a little slow around that gal, pardner; er ye might strike
some tr-trouble,” he said, threateningly.
“If you’re lookin’ fer trouble, old man,” retorted Dick, “you can find it
any time you want it.”
“Here, cut your cussin’,” said Jim, “and have another one on me. You
beat us all right, Nixon, but we’re game yet.”
 The bottle was passed around. Then Bud and his tipsy followers gathered
up their winnings and struck off whooping down the road, while the Bar B
boys returned to the old shack.
 Chapter II

NEW TRAILS

W HILE the rest of the boys were discussing the fun, Fred took his
shotgun, mounted Brownie and rode away toward the old ford to hunt
chickens.
Who was this Alta Morgan, he began to wonder. The daughter of some
rancher, no doubt. But she gave signs of a greater culture and a wider
experience than the ranch life of those days afforded. Perhaps she was some
city visitor to the valley. This seemed improbable, however; no untrained
city girl could have ridden a race with such skill. Who was she?
Brownie broke the reverie with a sudden start. Her rider glanced up to
catch a glimpse of a yellowish gray object slinking through the sage just a
few rods ahead. It was a coyote, trotting sleepily along. Jerking loose his
lasso, the boy tapped his mare lightly with his spurs. She leaped in response
straight towards the unsuspecting animal. A few bounds brought them
within rope’s length. Fred flung his lasso, just as the coyote, catching sight
of his pursuers, gave a terrified yelp and leaped, one breath too quick for
the whizzing rope.
Fred let out a joyful whoop, as Brownie bounded to bring her eager rider
close enough for another fling; but the coyote was flying for his life, and he
simply turned himself into a twisting streak of yellow, as he sped through
the brush. The little mare held her own well, but she could not close the gap
between them; and when the foothills were reached, the coyote, having no
burden to carry, gradually slipped up the hills and away.
With one more whoop to relieve his feelings, Fred slowed down. As he
sat watching the terrified animal dive into the bigger brush along the creek,
he saw a big flock of sage hens, frightened by the coyote, take wing and fly
away over the flat.
“There’s my chance,” he thought, following them with his keen eyes
until they settled down again among the sage brush. Then he rode away
toward them. When he came within about a hundred yards, he jumped from
his mare, tied her rather carelessly to a brush, and, cocking his gun, began
to step watchfully through the sage toward the place where the chickens had
lighted.
Suddenly, with a sputtering cluck, a big hen sprang into the air. The
excited hunter fired at the flying bird and missed. The report of the gun
brought the flock out of the brush. He fired again and down tumbled one of
them. Watching where it dropped, he reloaded his gun and began to walk
about to scare up others; but evidently the whole flock had risen at the first
shot; so he picked up the fallen bird and turned to carry it back to Brownie.
To his surprise she was half a mile away, galloping back toward the
ranch. Always nervous around guns, she had jerked loose at the shooting,
and run away. And she might have kept on going; but suddenly some one on
horseback galloped out of the trees at the old ford crossing, and taking in
the situation, struck straight for the runaway. It was Alta Morgan, who,
returning from her ride, had taken the shorter way home.
Brownie saw her coming, whirled and headed back toward the hills; but
Eagle gradually overtook her. Fred, watching eagerly, saw the girl loose her
lasso, whirl and fling it over the little mare’s head. Checked suddenly at the
saddle horn, she turned humbly and came trotting back to her master led by
the daring girl.
“Thank you very much,” said Fred, “but you shouldn’t have risked
yourself so to save me a chase.”
“Oh, Eagle wouldn’t fall with me, would you?” she said, patting his
warm neck.
“He is certainly a fine pony; and you surely know how to ride and to
throw a lasso,” was Fred’s complimentary response. “But how can I repay
you for this kindness?”
“Just come to our dance to-night.”
“Thank you; I’ll be there.”
“Now mind that you do,” she said lightly, turning to leave. “Good-by.”
“Good-by,” he responded reluctantly, captivated by her wildly sweet
ways. She dashed off through the sage on her nimble pony.
Fred intended fully to keep his promise, but his hunt for more chickens
led him several miles from the ranch up into the eastern foothills, and
before he realized how the day was slipping by the sun had almost set.
 The eastern slopes, with all their wondrous forms brought into relief by
the evening shadows, and the mountain tops, lighted by the golden glow of
the sinking sun, made so beautiful a picture that the boy stopped to enjoy it.
As he sat there resting, with leg flung over the saddle horn, drinking in the
cool scented breezes that had begun to pour out of the canyons, he noticed
just above him to the eastward a kind of glen that opened gently with
grassy, flower-strewn, aspen-groved slopes on to the flat below. Farther up
the sides were ragged rocks and pines; and just above the hill over which
the shorter trail led into the glen, was a rather bold cliff.
Fred thought he saw smoke rising up the face of the cliff. He looked
again more sharply; no smoke could be seen. Perhaps his eyes had deceived
him; but he was curious now to explore further.
“How about it, Brownie? Shall we find out what the place looks like?” It
was his habit sometimes to think out loud around Brownie. She did not
seem to object, so they began to climb slowly up the hillside.
The smoke appeared again; there was no mistaking it this time. The
thought flashed across him, “Perhaps it is Indians.” He checked his mare. If
it should be, Fred had no desire to meet them alone in this strange place,
especially since he had heard they were in an ugly temper just then because
the game wardens had been checking them in their killing the elk and deer.
He half decided to turn back, but his curiosity held him—his curiosity
and love of adventure made him decide to slip up the hill and take a peep at
things. Suiting his action to the thought, he dismounted, tethered his mare to
a bunch of brush, and made his way cautiously to the top. When very near
it, he dropped to his hands and knees, crept to the summit, and peered
through the brush to take in the scene below.
It was a kind of cove, grassy, flower-sprinkled, and strewn in nature’s
delightfully careless way with groves and shrubs. A great cliff formed part
of the background. Several shaggy pine trees shot above it. At the base of
the cliff was a grove of aspen saplings, out of which a brook came dancing.
But the thing which held his interest most was the cabin that stood directly
before him just within the edge of the aspen grove.
The cabin was rather roughly built, but it looked cozy. A generous stone
chimney, out of which the thin blue smoke was rising, stood at the north
end. One door, half open, and a small window were on the west. The skin of
some animal was nailed on the outside. A large dog lay dozing near the
door. The occasional clingety-clang of a cow bell broke the evening
stillness as bossy, grazing on the sweet grasses near the cabin, would throw
her head from time to time to shake off the bothersome flies. There were no
other signs of life around. Fred, however, had assured himself of one thing:
it was not Indians that lived there.
Yet Indians could scarcely have frightened him more than did a quiet
voice behind him, as it said, “Wal, boy, how do ye like the place?”
Fred jumped to his feet trembling like a leaf, and found himself facing
an old mountaineer, gray-bearded, long-haired, looking curiously at him.
“I scared ye, didn’t I?” the old man continued calmly. “Wal, stop
shakin’; I won’t hurt ye; but what are ye doin’ here anyway?”
“Why, I was just roaming about the hills, and—and—I happened to see
the smoke of your house, and thought it might be Indians, so I slipped up to
see.”
“Hain’t lost any Injuns, hev ye?” the calm gray eyes lighted with a little
twinkle.
“No, not exactly,” Fred returned more easily; “I’m just out hunting
chickens.”
“You hain’t found many.”
“No, I haven’t had very good luck.”
“That old hen’s pretty tough eatin’! You better come down and try some
young ones I killed this mornin’. It’s gettin’ near supper time.”
Fred was ready enough to accept the invitation. The afternoon’s
excitement had made him hungry; but he was hungrier to learn more about
his new acquaintance.
They trudged down the trail to the cabin. The dog leaped up at their
coming and bounded toward his master; but he stopped uncertain how to
greet the boy, till the mountaineer said calmly, “It’s all right, Tobe”; and the
dog turned to trot ahead of them back to the house.
“The old fellow allus wants to be introduced to strangers,” he explained;
“good thing he didn’t catch you spyin’ up there; he might ’a’ turned savage.
Unsaddle your pony, now, and stake her on that grass patch yender; then
come in.” Fred obeyed.
“What’s yer name, boy?” the old man asked rather abruptly, as Fred
returned.
 “Fred—Fred Benton.”
“Sounds honest,” was the rejoinder; “come in and set down while I stir
up the fire and get a flapjack fryin’; you won’t git pies and cakes here, you
know.”
“I’m not used to them; but, here, let me help you, mister.”
“Don’t mister me, boy; call me Uncle Dave, if ye want to. There ain’t
much to help about; but ye might git some water in that pail, and chop a bit
of wood. It’ll hurry things.”
“All right,” returned Fred, picking up a brass pail that stood on a rude
bench along the wall. By the time he had returned with the water and wood,
the mountaineer had his batter ready. While the bake oven was heating on
the fire, he stepped to a kind of box that he had built over the creek and
brought out something wrapped in a damp cloth. He unrolled it on the table
and showed two dressed sage hens. It took but a few strokes of his hunting
knife to carve them for frying, and then Fred was given the task of tending
the chickens while the old man baked the bread and made the coffee.
A rude table was set with tin dishes. The food was spread on it,—a dish
of mountain berries, with some cream and sugar, being added to the hot
bread and coffee and the fried chicken.
“This is a real feast,” said Fred.
“Wal, let’s give thanks for it,” was the quiet response, and they bowed
their heads while the old man said a simple grace. “Now be at home, boy,”
he added.
The two ate and chatted the while with friendly ease. There was a native
charm about the mountaineer, and a touch of mystery that was captivating.
Something in the boy, too, seemed to please the old man. It was Fred’s
spontaneous, open-hearted attitude toward life. His nature was a blended
one. He was full of latent manliness, clearly shown in his straight, square-
shouldered form, firm step, and intelligent eyes; yet he possessed a dash of
boyishness, too, that kept him natural and unsophisticated. It was this spirit
of trustful innocence that won friends for him quickly, especially among
children and old people, though it sometimes brought on him the ridicule of
fellows like Dick.
Uncle Dave responded more freely than was his wont to the boy’s
questions about the wilds, revealing the while touches of his own life, about
which he seldom talked.
 He had been a hunter and trapper ever since his boyhood. Yielding,
while yet in his teens, to the call of his red blood for adventure, he had
come west with some mountaineers who had chanced to camp near his
father’s pioneer home in the woods of Ohio. Thrilled by their tales of the
wild life on the Upper Missouri, he begged his old parents to let him go. He
could help them best, he felt sure, by following the life of a trapper. He
would return and settle down some day. They finally gave a reluctant
consent, allowing him to leave with their prayers and blessings. As a
constant reminder to duty, the mother slipped into his pack her old Bible. It
lay even now on the top of his cupboard. He never saw his parents again.
They died before he could return.
Free of all other home ties, he made the Rockies his home. His life had
been a long series of thrilling experiences. For many years he had lived
among the Indians. He had trapped for Bridger, and other famous fur-
traders. Sometimes he had worked with fellow mountaineers, but for the
most part he had lived alone as now in some quiet spot close to the heart of
nature.
The old trapper rarely mingled with men; when he did, it was but for
time enough to swap his furs and stock up with the simple supplies that he
needed. He said little; and he parried curious questions so curtly that those
who sought to find out anything about his life usually left about as wise as
they began.
If Fred had shown any sign of prying into his new-found friend’s affairs,
he might have met the same kind of rebuff. Fred, however, had no such
thought. He simply was enjoying the old mountaineer. They talked of the
past of these hills, of the wild life, the Indians, the bear, beaver, and buffalo.
“This country was thick with game when I fust come here,” said Uncle
Dave.
“I should have liked to live here then,” responded Fred.
“Yes, them was good old days,” said the mountaineer, “but they was
mighty hard ones too, only I was young then and didn’t mind hardships.
After all, boy, the best days fer you is right now. Don’t go to sighin’ fer any
better time. The life you’re livin’ is the best one you’ll ever live. I’ve had
most o’ my days; you’re havin’ yours. Fill ’em right, boy, jest as they come
to you. Don’t get the frettin’ and wishin’ habit. But if you want to see some
new country, I reckon I kin help you find it. There air some pretty wild
places left in these hills yet. How’d ye like to take a day with me explorin’
’em?”
“Fine! When shall I come?”
“Any time this month’ll do; but come up early; I don’t like climbin’
these hills in the heat o’ the day.”
“I’ll be here the first chance I can get; but I must be off now before it
gets dark.”
While Fred went after his mare, the old man stood in his cabin door
peering up the hills toward the north.
“Wonder what them Redskins got to-day,” he said, as Fred rode up.
The boy turned in his saddle to look in the same direction and saw
several Indians trailing down the hill. Their ponies seemed to be loaded.
“Guess they’ve killed some blacktail or young elk.”
“It’s out of season, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but they don’t pay any heed to the game laws.”
“Won’t the warden arrest them?”
“He’ll ketch ’em fust; and then if he tries to bring ’em to time, there’ll be
trouble. They’re perty sassy ’bout their rights in this country yet. You’d
better take the trail south o’ the creek, and keep out of their way.”
“All right. Thanks for your kindness, Uncle Dave. I hope I haven’t
bothered you too much with my questions.”
“No bother at all, boy. Glad to hev you. It gets kind o’ lonesome here
sometimes, with no one to talk to ’cept nature. Come agin.”
“I surely will; good night.”
“Good night, boy.”
The old mountaineer watched until Fred disappeared with a good-by
wave of his hand over the crest of the hill, and then he turned to his dog and
said quietly, “Come, Tobe, let’s git old Middie; it’s ’bout milkin’ time.”
 Chapter III

MORGAN’S DANCE

F RED did not reach the ranch till long after dark; he found it deserted of
all but Dan, who sat on the steps.
“Hello,” he called out cheerily as he galloped up; “all alone?”
“Yes,” was Dan’s quiet reply; “the rest have gone to Morgan’s to dance
the devil out of them, or in—I don’t know which. Where have you been all
day?”
“Oh, just scouting about the hills for fun. There, Brownie, trot away and
feed yourself”; he said, jerking off his saddle. After hanging it up, he
returned.
“Aren’t you going to the dance?” asked Dan.
“Oh, it’s so late I don’t like to go. I think I’ll tumble in and take a good
rest. There’s work coming to-morrow.”
“Yes,” responded Dan, “and there’ll be few hands to do it. The boys
won’t get rid of their whisky by then.”
The two chatted on a little while, then both went to their bunks and
quieted down. Fred lay for a few moments listening to the frogs croaking in
the pond near by till he dropped off into a sleep as peaceful as the night
about him.
Across the creek at Morgan’s ranch, however, the night was far from
quiet. The big rooms of the ranch house were bright with light and ringing
with music, laughter, and chatty, half-boisterous voices. The dance was at
its height.
Old Morgan had been in the war, and he was full of patriotism, always
flinging his doors wide open on the Fourth with Western welcome to all his
neighbors, urging them to come, and taking it hard if they didn’t. So they
came in force, on horseback or clattering in buckboards, came full of rough
fun, and when they could get it, full of whisky.
It was a noisy, jolly crowd that gathered on this night, cowboys and
ranch girls, all ready to swing themselves dizzy, ripe for excitement,
whether it came in the form of a frolic or a fight. For, though the program
never called for it, a “cowboy scrap” was the one impromptu part always
expected, and welcomed by many. A dance, indeed, would have been
thought tame without it. There were those who never missed any chance to
touch it off, by some tantalizing act which was lighted matches to powder.
The doings of the day had helped to put the boys at pistol points. Yet for
some reason the under current of ill will was kept down unusually well. It
might have been because Colonel Morgan, the soldierly, gray-haired master
of the place, who, because of the drinking, rather anticipated trouble, had
opened the dance with this cheery warning:
“Now, lads and lassies, I asked you here to have a good time; I am going
to see that you have it, even if I have to pitch any fool out that does a trick
to spoil our fun. Come, Uncle Toby, make the old fiddle do some lively
talking.”
“All right, Colonel,” called back a roly-poly, baldhead of a man, perched
on a high seat in a corner. “Take yer pardners fer a grand waltz.”
Then, while the smiling, chatty couples began to file about the room, he
scraped on his strings to tune up with a little organ played by a lively-eyed
midget of a girl.
The music struck up, and the dancers began to swing around, taking their
bumps, for the floor was crowded, with jolly good nature. It was a whirl of
happy, glowing faces. The dancing, however, was far from rude. Many
couples, indeed, glided over the rough floor with an ease that showed them
to be no strangers to the art. Alta was especially graceful. She was electric
with life, her sweet face lighted by bright eyes and rosy cheeks, her tripping
toes keeping step to the music. Her well rounded form was trimly, daintily
dressed in white, a rose-colored ribbon at her throat, and a spray of wild
flowers airily caught in her hair. She was playful, but her play had in it a
touch of pride, and her voice spoke culture. Her costume, too, had a dash of
style that was lacking in the dresses of the other girls, who, though comely
enough, had so bedecked themselves in showy ribbons and fluffy laces that
they looked rather ungraceful.
Yet, though superior to them in most respects, Alta, from all outward
appearances, was unconscious of it. She was just one with them.
Everybody, from the nattiest cowboy to the shaggiest rancher, felt at home
in her presence. Even the other girls, though they might have felt a twinge
of jealousy at her popularity when they saw the boys, as always, in a cluster
about her, had accepted her leadership; for everybody liked Alta Morgan,
except Bud Nixon.
Ever since she had rebuked him for his forced and unwelcome
attentions, he had carried an ugly heart toward the girl. The incident which
provoked his anger had just recently occurred, and Bud was stubborn in his
grudges.
When Alta first came as a little girl to her uncle’s ranch, Bud had been a
kind of big brother to her. He was employed by Colonel Morgan; and with
the other hands, he had taken delight in teaching her how to ride, to throw a
lasso, and to drive the cattle. Alta responded with childlike good-fellowship,
accepting his attentions with playful innocence. Bud thought of her as of a
mere child at first; but when Alta, after two years at school, came back, no
longer a romping little ranch girl but a young lady, beautiful in her budding
womanhood, he fell an easy prey to her charms. Presuming on his former
associations, he grew ardent toward the girl. Surprised and annoyed at this
turn of affairs, Alta tried at first to avoid him; but since he worked at her
uncle’s ranch, it was hard not to meet him often; and the worse she treated
him, the more persistent he grew, forcing his love-making upon her until
one day she compelled herself to face it out. Then she told him frankly that
if he wanted to keep her friendship, he must stop his love nonsense.
“Friendship!” he blurted out; “I don’t want your friendship. If we can’t
be more’n friends, we can’t be anything.”
“Well, Bud,” she said firmly, “we can’t be anything more.”
“You won’t have me, then?” he half demanded.
“Have you?” Alta’s tone showed more than she meant to reveal of her
disgust.
Bud’s stupid pride was stung. “You damned flirt,” he snapped, “if you
was a man I’d——”
“No, you wouldn’t, Bud Nixon,” Alta checked him; “you’re too big a
coward. Now don’t you dare insult me again or you’ll rue it.”
This flash of righteous temper took his breath away. He stared stupidly at
her, then turned sharply and strode out of the room with jangling spurs. That
ended it so far as the love-making was concerned; but it was the beginning
of a stupid hate in his heart. He simply caroused about and took delight in
becoming chief of the ruffian element in the valley, venting his spite against
Alta by tormenting her in rude ways, and making any fellow who dared to
pay her attention a target for his enmity and abuse.
Alta’s uncle knew nothing about the matter. She spared his feelings by
keeping this trouble to herself—a rather hard thing for Alta to decide,
because all of her life she had confided freely in her “dear daddy,” as she
affectionately called him. But this she knew would anger and worry him
and she feared the consequences.
The Colonel, however, did notice that something was wrong with Bud.
He began of a sudden to grow reckless and unreliable. This change of
disposition in his best hand puzzled and annoyed the ranch owner very
much. For Bud had always been a faithful worker, full of energy. As a judge
of stock he had few equals, while he could handle horses and cattle with
unusual skill. A good deal of the Colonel’s success in ranching was due to
Nixon’s help.
Nixon knew this well enough, and he was a little presumptuous around
the place because of it, bossing the other boys, and taking liberties in
various ways that no other hand would dare to take. The Colonel did not
like this, but out of regard for Bud’s good services, he overlooked the fault.
Colonel Morgan, however, was no easy-going manager. Quite the
contrary. His military training had made him a strict disciplinarian, and
when Bud carried things too far, neglecting his duties to sport about the
valley, he received a rather sharp suggestion from his master to mend his
ways.
“I’ll take keer of myself all right, Colonel, you needn’t bother about
me,” returned Bud, with a touch of insolence in his tone.
“Well, see that you do; and for your own good you had better cut out
your rough stuff,” returned the Colonel.
“Well, I’ve allus done my full stint around this ranch, ain’t I? and I’m jist
as good as any one on it.”
“Yes, you’ve been a good worker and I appreciate what you have done;
now just keep on doing your duty and we’ll have no trouble,” returned the
Colonel in kindly tone, ignoring the offensive suggestions in Bud’s talk. He
desired no break between them.
“All right, boss!” Bud turned and walked away to the corral to pick up
some task he had been directed to do.
 There was something still in the tone and manner that the old soldier did
not like, but he passed it by, hoping that Bud would soon come back to
himself.
Instead of this he grew more undependable and arrogant day by day,
until the Colonel’s patience was about exhausted. He held his feelings in
check, however, until Bud brought on the crisis.
Bud was at the dance that night, of course, carrying enough of the bad
whisky dispensed at the races to be ugly and itching for a fight. Everybody
knew he was there, too. He danced about boisterously for a time, then sat in
the corner telling crude yarns, while the dance whirled on about him. He
would not deign to ask Alta to dance with him, but he eyed her closely, and
it punished him severely to see her so popular with the boys, so happily
careless and beautiful as she glided around the gay room. Once she had
caught him watching her, and had nodded smilingly; but receiving only a
sullen stare in response, she gave no further attention to him for the rest of
the evening until the row came.
It was some time after twelve that the storm broke. The midnight supper
scraps had been cleared away and the crowd fell to singing, “We won’t go
home till mornin’,” with lusty voices.
They came very nearly breaking their tuneful resolve, however, much
sooner than they expected. It happened in this way. Dick Davis unwittingly
precipitated the trouble. According to promise, Alta gave him the first
dance, and Dick rather presumed on her partnership for the evening.
“That was a dandy dance,” he said as he took her to her seat.
“I enjoyed it,” she responded. It was no flattery either; for Dick did
dance well. He was rather a handsome fellow, too, with dark hair and eyes.
He was of athletic build, rather slender and wiry, graceful of movement,
neat in his dress, and possessing the assurance which Fred lacked to make
him claim quickly the attention of the girls. Dick’s chief faults were his
conceit and his fickleness, a hint of which was given by his slightly uptilted
nose that detracted somewhat from his otherwise regular countenance.
“I’d sure like another just like it,” he suggested; “will you?”
“Why, yes, if you wish it.”
So a little while later they waltzed again, while Bud Nixon, who had
planted his stockily built body in the corner among some of the bolder girls,
still kept close watch of the movements of the graceful couple. The jealous
glance that blazed in his dark eyes boded no good for Dick; for Bud was a
determined fellow, once he started on a quest. He was reckless too; and this
characteristic, backed by his strong body, made him a dangerous enemy.
Dick kept so close to Alta during the dance that Bud gradually grew
inwardly furious. He determined to break up the flirting. How to do it was
the problem his thick brain finally worked out. When Dick for the third time
led Alta out to dance, Bud jumped up, grabbed the arm of Molly Thompson,
who sat near him, giggling over his coarse jokes, and said, “Let’s hev a
dance, little gal.”
Molly was ready enough, and soon they were swinging rapidly around
the room. Suddenly, with malice aforethought on Bud’s part, they bumped
into Dick and Alta. Bud laughed leeringly at his rudeness.
“That’s all right for once, pardner,” Dick said, threateningly, as they
caught the step again. Instinctively he felt that it was not an accident; but he
overlooked the challenging insult till Bud bumped into them again with a
suddenness that almost upset both him and Alta.
Dick whirled and slapped him in the face. They jumped back. A second
later two revolvers flashed and a shot went crashing through the window
just over the old fiddler’s head.
Both had pulled the trigger, but Dick’s hammer snapped on an empty
shell; Bud’s bullet, sent by a half drunken hand, just touched Dick’s ear and
shattered the window close to Uncle Toby, who was scraping away sleepily
on his fiddle.
“Whoopee!” shouted the old man, jumping as if he had been shot, and
tumbling off his seat. There was a sudden rush for the doorway.
Before the assailants could pull trigger again, however, some one had
knocked Bud’s pistol from his hand, Colonel Morgan had grabbed him, and
Jim had jerked Dick’s arm down just as his revolver rang out, sending a
bullet through Bud’s big toe. The bully jumped with a yell of pain and tried
to break through the crowd for the door, toward which Colonel Morgan’s
brawny hand, clutched on his collar, was hustling him. When the way was
cleared, the old Colonel gave his crestfallen captive a shove and a kick,
saying wrathfully, “Now, get, you damned hoodlum, and don’t you ever
darken my door again!”
“If I catch you,” shouted Dick angrily, “I’ll shoot you on sight.”
 Bud, terrified now and suffering with pain, ran to the shed, jumped on
his horse and sped away. Where he went no one knew, and nobody seemed
to care.
The panic gradually subsided, and the dance was soon going on as
merrily as if nothing had happened. The crowd did not go home till
morning; at least the new day was just sending its heralds of light above the
hills as the party broke up with hearty thanks and hand shakes to Rancher
Morgan and his niece for the jolly time they had given their neighbors. As a
parting salute, the cowboys emptied their revolvers into the air and dashed
away with whoops that woke the hillside echoes. The girls struck up—

“Good night, ladies,

Good night, ladies,
Good night, ladies,
We’re going to leave you now.”

as they rolled along the ranch roads in their buckboards and lumber wagons.
Colonel Morgan and his little girl, with animated faces, stood in the door
till the revelry had died away. Then Alta turned to her warm-souled uncle,
the only father she had ever known, and giving him a sweet—not good-
night, but good-morning kiss, left for her room and lay down to rest. But
she could not go to sleep. Her thoughts kept tossing excitedly, till to calm
them she arose and went to the window where she stood looking out upon
the dawning day, and thinking, thinking.
The events of the night just past had shocked her soul to a new sense of
responsibility. She had begun to learn that it is dangerous business to play
with the fire of human hearts. She chided herself for being too free with
Dick Davis. What would come of it all? Her sensitive heart was troubled.
For Alta Morgan was not a flirt; she was full of life and fun; she liked
friends, and she won them quickly by her artless grace and genuine
goodness; but though she seemed care-free and merry, her conscience was
keen and true. It pained her to hurt any one. She felt more pity than blame
for even stupid Bud. But she soothed herself with the feeling that after all,
her fault was at worst only a bursting desire for innocent fun; and with this
comforting thought she gradually dropped her worries to watch the morning
break in peace over her troubled world.
 The sunlight was tipping the jagged rim of the eastern mountains with
flaming gold, before she threw herself, still in her dainty white but rather
crumpled dress, on her couch.
When her uncle came in an hour later, she was still lying there, a quiet
smile upon her pretty lips, a trace of tear stain on her cheek, and some
withered wild flowers tangled in her silken hair. The Colonel gazed a
moment in admiration, then he stepped softly across the room, took a light
shawl that hung above her, and after spreading it gently over his “little
squirrel” stole from the room, closing the door quietly after him.
 Chapter IV

FIRE WATER

T HE Bar B ranch was roused that morning by a rowdy, half-tipsy band of

cowboys, who dashed up to the old shack just as the sun pushed his
blazing face above the eastern peaks.
Dan and Fred were up and had breakfast well under way; for they knew
that Pat would not be in any fettle to do the cooking that day.
“Foine gintlemen ye are, may hiven bless ye fer givin’ a helpin’ hand,”
Pat called out as he tumbled off his horse.
“Bully boys,” echoed Jim, “to stay at home and have breakfast a smokin’
fer the fellers that’s had the fun. That’s just what my good old mother used
to do for this rattle-brain boy of hers.”
“Gee, but I’m sleepy!” said Dick, throwing his head on the saddle he had
just jerked from his pony.
“No wonder at all, at all,” returned Jim, “but brighten up, Dickie, and
take your rations; you can’t doze off and dream of fancy girls about here to-
day.”
Dick was asleep before the sermon was finished. Seeing this, Jim filled a
cup with cold water and dashed it in the sleeper’s face. Dick jumped up,
sputtering and grumbling sleepily, “Oh, cheese it, Jimmie! Let a feller
snooze a little.”
“No snooze for the wicked,” returned Jim, while they all laughed at
Dick’s discomfiture; “and you’ve been mighty wicked to flirt with pretty
Alta, and shoot poor Bud in the toes. What do you say, boys, first fellow
that goes to sleep again to-day gets soused in the creek?”
“Good enough,” shouted the boys.
That settled it. The crowd had to keep awake all day, though it was a
sore trial to most of them. But cowboys must get used to that sort of thing,
especially during the roundup days, when it often happens that the work
means riding all day and herding all night.
 To-day, however, it was not the roundup, but a “barn-raising” that called
for the help of all hands and the cook. Captain Hanks was anxious to get the
big barn up before haying time came, and it took a great deal of muscle to
raise the heavy timber.
“Now, all together—yo-hee!” the foreman would shout to the boys
ranged along the great logs, and with much straining and puffing they
slowly lifted them into place, one on top of the other.
Between lifts the sleepy ones would tumble back on the grass, amusing
themselves with poking fun at one another. The dance gave them enough to
talk about. But the one thing that touched them off again and again into
spasms of laughter was the suggestion of Uncle Toby’s tumble from his
fiddler’s perch, and Bud’s yell and flight.
“Now all together, yo-hee!” Captain Hanks shouted for the twentieth
time that day. The log was beginning slowly to rise when Jim suddenly let
go his hold and yelled, “Now, altogether—whoopee!”
The crowd collapsed, sinking to the ground with the big log on top of
them.
“You fellows must have had a high time last night,” said Fred, “the fuss
you make about it.”
“Bully time it was, Teddy,” returned Jim; “why didn’t you turn up and
help swing the ranch lassies off their feet?”
“Oh, the kid’s not of our kind,” sneered Dick; “you wouldn’t catch him
swinging the girls.”
“Don’t be too sure about that, Dick,” retorted Fred; “I’ll just take in the
next dance to show you how.”
“Good fer you, me boy,” said Pat, “and we’ll leave Dick home to do the
cookin’, next toime.”
“You’ll go damned hungry if you do,” snapped Dick.
“Oh, well, me boy, oh well,” Pat broke out singing:

It’s divil a rap do I care,

It’s divil a rap do I care,
As long as a drap is left, is left,
In the old demijohn next mornin’.
 “That reminds me,” said Cap Hanks, “there’s a demijohn under my
bunk, Pat; go get it. The boys need a drop to keep ’em awake to-day.”
“I’m off,” said Pat, jogging away to the old shack. He found a gallon jug
of choice old rye where the foreman had said, and was soon back to the
barn.
“Now do the honors, cook,” said Hanks, “the treat’s on me.”
“You’re a gintleman!” said Pat, pouring out and passing round the
whisky. When his turn came he took a long drink, rubbing his stomach with
his free hand the while, then smacking his lips, he raised his eyes and said
solemnly, “Hiven at last.”
When the laughter that greeted Pat’s performance subsided, Jim said,
“You’d better watch out, Dicky, or Teddy here will be leadin’ you a merry
chase after your ranch lassie.”
“Yes,” added Pat; “you know that the loikes of ye can’t talk poetry, and
Teddy can.”
“Oh, I’ll risk it; he’s harmless,” returned Dick.
“Don’t you be too sure; you can’t tell how far a toad can jump by his
looks,” said Jim dryly; “and remember you promised to make me boss
when old Morgan deeds the ranch to you.”
“Hip, hooray!” broke in Pat, “what bloomin’ circus is this a-comin’?”
Everybody looked up.
“A bunch of Injuns, by ginger!” said Cap Hanks; “I hope they won’t
pitch their wickiups about here. They’ll beg the boots off our feet.”
“They’re heading this way,” said Dan.
“Holy mither, defind us poor sinners,” said Pat in mock fright. “Me head
is bald as a button already; it’s no ither scalp I have to spare.”
“Hike to the shack with that whisky, Pat,” said the foreman, “and put it
out of sight.”
“Right ye are, Captain”; Pat grabbed up the demijohn and dashed off.
When inside the shack he took another drink, then placing the jug in the
cupboard, returned to see the Indians, who were trailing along slowly
toward the waiting cowboys.
“Looks like old Copperhead’s band,” said Dan. “Dave Johnson told me
they were in the valley.”
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