of country, sweeping away into the basin beneath it, toward a
mountain range whose peaks rose barren and smooth in the white sunlight.

"This here's 'Razor-Back' ridge," explained Norton as the ponies halted;
"called that on account of bein' so unusually narrow on the top." He
pointed to some buildings which Hollis had seen but to which he had
given very little attention, thinking they were those of the Circle Bar.
"Them's the Circle Cross buildings," resumed Norton. "They're about
three miles from the Circle Bar ranchhouse, directly north through that
cottonwood back of the bunkhouse where you tried your gun the day after
you come out here. Down below there--where you see them two big
cottonwood trees--is 'Big Elk' crossin'. There's another somethin' like
it back up the crick a ways, on the other side of the ranchhouse, called
the 'Narrows.'" He laughed grimly. "But we don't use them crossins'
much--they're dead lines; generally you'll find there's a Circle Cross
man or so hangin' around them--with a rifle. So it don't pay to go
monkeyin' around there unless you've got pressin' business."

He made a grimace. "It's my opinion that a good many Circle Bar cattle
have crossed the crick in them two places--never to come back." He swept
a hand up the river, indicating the sentinel like buttes that frowned
above the bed of the stream. "The crick is pretty shallow," he
continued, "but Big Elk an' the Narrows are the only two places where a
man can cross in safety--if we consider that there wouldn't be any
Circle Cross man hangin' around them two places. But there ain't no
other place to cross an' so we don't go on the other side much."

He turned to Hollis, looking at him with a quaint smile. "From here you
can see everything that amounts to anything in this section--which ain't
a heap. Of course over there are some mountains--where we was a few days
ago lookin' up the boys"--he pointed to some serrated peaks that rose
somberly in the southwestern distance--"but as you saw there ain't much
to them except rocks an' lava beds. There's some hills there"--pointing
to the south--"but there ain't nothin' to see in them. They look a heap
better from here than they do when you get close to them. That's the way
with lots of things, ain't it?"

Hollis smiled. "I like it," he said quietly, "much better than I did
when I came." He turned to Norton with a whimsical smile. "I suppose it
will strike you as peculiar, but I've got a notion t