ome of 'em."

"But what sort of a case do you s'pose Diamond X has got, anyhow?"

"Pretty good, I hear."

"Well, I hope they have. Gosh! If we're goin' t' be overrun with them
onery sheep jest as we've got things runnin' nicely fer cattle--wa'al,
I don't want t' live around here--that's all I got to say!" exclaimed
one grizzled cowman.

"Same here!" commented some of his hearers. "Sheep's no good; never
were any good; an' what's more, never will be any good!"

"That's right!" came a deep-voiced chorus.

To hear them tell it one would think that a sheep had no rights at all
and that a sheep man was the worst being on earth, and yet, as a matter
of fact, many a cowman, sick of the eternal beef that he had to eat,
welcomes a tender bit of roast lamb.

But such is the world!

To the cattlemen the sheep owners and herders were despised and hated
of men--not fit to live within the same thousand-mile area of cattle
and horses.

Of course sheep was not the direct issue. As was said, the point
turned on whether the Spur Creek land came under the provisions of the
open range, as defined by Congress, and once this was settled a man
could pasture elephants on the land he staked out, provided he could
get elephants to stay there.

But the coming of the sheep meant the going of the cattle. And that is
why the courtroom was so filled with spectators. Dick was there, his
bullet-wounded hand almost better. Bud was there, as was his father
and many cowboys from Diamond X.

Del Pinzo, with a grin on his evil, bearded face, was there also.

"We will take up first the matter of the open range land," said the
Judge. "The matter was laid over until to-day to enable the defendant
to produce certain papers in court substantiating his claim to
pasturage along Spur Creek. Are you ready to proceed, Mr. Bonnett?"
and he looked at Mr. Merkel's lawyer.

"Your Honor," began the attorney, "we hoped to be able to settle the
matter definitely to-day. I expected to show the deeds proving our
claim. But, unless a certain witness whom I depended on soon arrives,
we shall have to proceed to trial. If this witness were here, and if
he could prove what I hoped----"

"You will never be able to prove anything!" broke in the sneering voice
of Del Pinzo.

"Silence in the court!" cried Sheriff Hank Fowler, but almost as he
spoke the decorum was again broken by a voice which cried in ringing
tones:

"Oh, yes, we can prove everything