his black,
curling beard. It was the beard which had prevented his recognition up
to now. Though there was something vaguely familiar about the actions
of the leader of the sheep men. And he who bore the flag of truce--Del
Pinzo no less--had been the leader in the attempts to cross the creek.

"Well, what do you want?" demanded Billee. "We might have known it was
some of your dirty work, though I must say you've got a pretty good
false face on with all them whiskers. What do you want?"

"To cross the creek, of course, _Senor_ Billee, and pasture our sheep
on that land which belongs to us."

"Belongs to you! How do you make that out?" demanded Bud, unable to
keep still longer.

"Ah, the young _senor_ speaks," mocked Del Pinzo, smilingly. "Then he
should know that this land has been thrown open to all who may wish to
graze sheep on it."

"This land was never intended for sheep, Del Pinzo, and you know it!"
cried Billee. "Even if it was, it belongs to Mr. Merkel, though you'll
never see the day he raises sheep--the stinking critters!"

"You say the land belongs to _Senor_ Merkel?" asked Del Pinzo, lowering
his hands and the flag of truce, perhaps unconsciously.

"Keep 'em up!" snarled Snake Purdee, and the flag went up again in a
trice.

"You know this land belongs to Mr. Merkel," went on Billee.

"Doubtless, then, he can prove it in a court of law," mocked the
half-breed Greaser.

"Sure he can!" asserted the old cowboy earnestly and with conviction,
though he knew in his heart this was not so. But, as he said
afterward, he wasn't going to let Del Pinzo do all the "bluffing."

"Then we shall go to law about it," said the Mexican leader. "And we
shall have action against you for shooting at us when we peaceably
tried to cross and pasture our flocks on the open range land that is
given away by the so grand government of the United States."

"They wouldn't give any to _you_!" cried Billee. "All the land you'll
ever own in the good old U.S.A. will be six feet to hold you after
somebody shoots your head off, as ought to be done long ago. You're
not a citizen and you know it, and you can't claim a foot of land, even
if Mr. Merkel didn't own it!"

"I claim it not for myself--but for my friends, the so poor sheep
herders," said Del Pinzo, in what he meant for a humble voice. "I but
act as their leader and adviser. I seek nothing for myself."

"First time I've ever known _that_ to happen!" chuckled B