gathered and driven into a
common center until they formed one great herd.

Whitey and Injun managed to go with Buck Milton's men, as Whitey liked
Buck better than any of the other punchers, but the death of Tom had
left Buck in a gloomy mood, and he spoke but little, either to the men
or to the boys. The others were loud in their oaths and threats of
vengeance; Buck was silent--and somehow, Whitey could not help feeling
that Buck was the most dangerous enemy the sheepmen would have to deal
with.

This round-up lasted a full week. During it Walt Lampson had found time
to consider his course of action against the stampeders of his herd. So
when Whitey and Injun returned, they found that the Star Circle was to
be involved in one of the scourges of the time--a range war.

If you had been there would you have wanted to stay and see the thing
out? The answer is so simple that you know what Whitey and Injun wanted
to do. But Whitey knew that hardened as Walt Lampson was, he would not
allow the boys to accompany the coming expedition against the sheepmen,
so Injun and Whitey did what you probably would have done, and what
Br'er Rabbit did--they lay low. And Walt either forgot to send them
home, or thought that they would stay at the Star Circle while the war
was on.

For two days after the round-up nothing was done at the ranch, beyond
the oiling of guns, and consultations among the men. Walt Lampson seemed
to be waiting for something. On the third night there was a meeting in
the ranch-house living-room. A meeting which Whitey and Injun attended
unseen, by the simple method of hiding. It may have been wrong to
listen, but it was worse to die, and Whitey felt that he surely would
expire if he didn't know what was going on. Injun had no scruples at
all.

A traveler might have thought that all trails led to the Star Circle
Ranch, that gloomy night, for from every point of the compass came
riders, alone, by twos, and by threes. Desperate, hard men, who had used
their bodily strength to conquer the elements and to build up their
herds, as mine-owners use machinery to crush the gold out of the ore.
For this war of the sheep against the cattle was a common war, and it
was to be fought to a finish in that country.

So that was what Walt was waiting for, thought Whitey as he looked into
the living-room from a crack in the office door, held slightly ajar. Had
Whitey been in a criminal court during the last appeal of opposing
co