get me. I'm not
chiding. They talk about cattle thieves! Why, your outfit would steal
the spurs off a rustler's heels. And when men like Hawk and Yankee
Robinson and German set up a little ranch with a few head of cows for
themselves your bunch blacklists them, refuses 'em work anywhere on the
range. Where did Dutch Henry learn to steal? Working for Barb
Doubleday; he branded mavericks for him, played dummy for his land
entries, swore to false affidavits for him. Now when he turns around and
steals the steers he stole for Barb, Barb has the nerve to ask me to
round him up at my proper risk and run him out of the country!"

Van Horn rose: "That's the answer, is it?"

Laramie sat still. He looked dead ahead: "What did it sound like?" he
asked, as Van Horn stood looking at him.

"Just the same, Jim," muttered Van Horn, "the rustlers have got to go."

Laramie looked across the office: "That all may be," he observed, rising.
And he repeated as Van Horn started away: "That all may be. And the men
that ripped off my wire have got to put it back. Tell 'em I said so."

Van Horn whirled in a flash of anger: "You talk as if you think I'd
ripped it off myself."

"I do think so."

For one instant the two men, confronting, eyed each other, Van Horn's
face aflame. Both carried Colt's revolvers in hip holsters; Van Horn's
gun slung at his right hip, Laramie's slung at his left. Both were known
capable of extremes. Then the critical moment passed. Van Horn broke
into a laugh; without a yellow drop in his veins, as far as personal
courage went, he had thought twice before attempting to draw where no man
had yet drawn successfully. He put out his hand in frank fashion: "Jim,
you wrong yourself as much as me when you talk that way."

He made his peace as well as it could be made in words. But when his
protestations were ended Laramie only said: "That all may be, Harry. But
whoever pulled my wire--and left it in the creek--will put it back--if
it's ten years from now."

The two men, Van Horn still talking, made their way back to the billiard
hall--Laramie refusing to drink, and halting for brief greetings when
assailed by acquaintances. After they parted, Van Horn, as soon as he
could escape notice, passed again through the door leading to the hotel
office. He walked up the main stairway to the second floor, thence to
the third floor and following a corridor stopped in front of the last
room, slipped a pass key