ure. This is an extremely rich and productive section, with natural
resources which will make it heard from some day, so we are anxious to
obtain a portion of the valley for speculative purposes. If the railroad
comes through we'll probably build a town somewhere nearby and open up
an irrigation project we have in mind. If not, we'll use our holdings to
raise wheat and livestock. The proposition is a sound investment either
way you look at it."

"A few years ago," said Wade, "I and several others leased upwards of
twenty thousand acres of grass land here in the valley for stock grazing
purposes. I, personally, filed a claim on the land I now call my home
ranch. Our lease, which is direct from the Government, gives us entire
control of the land so long as we pay for it.

"Besides ourselves, there are a number of ranches in the valley, all of
them cattle and horse outfits. There has always been a tacit agreement
that sheep should not be grazed here because sheep and cattle can't live
on the same range in large numbers. Until Moran came here, we had no
trouble whatever--the sheep ranchers kept to their own side of the
mountains and we cattlemen kept to ours. Since Moran has arrived,
however, the sheep have crossed the Divide in thousands, until the
entire valley is being overrun with them.

"Only this morning, Moran admitted to me that the sheep men are acting
with his authority and backing. Senator Rexhill, this is wrong, and your
agent, or manager, is making a big mistake. Since you are the prime
mover in this matter, your arrival is even more opportune than I at
first thought, because you have the power to immediately correct your
hired man's mistake. So far as we cattle ranchers can learn, Moran is
bringing sheep in here with the deliberate intention of starving us out
of our homes. He seems to want our range and he--I'll not say
you--thinks that such a course is the cheapest way to gain possession.
He'll find it the dearest in the end. Unless the sheep are moved mighty
soon, we shall be mixed up in one of the bloodiest little wars in the
history of the range country. Mark you, I'm no firebrand,--some call me
too conservative; but we have about reached the limit, and something is
bound to happen before many days."

Senator Rexhill drummed with his fingers on the table.

"Um! Does Moran know of this attitude in you and your friends, Gordon?"

"Yes. I have just finished telling him of it. But he merely laughs at
us