ll back on that for
winter feed. Last winter, when cows were dying like rats, his men were
out drifting Slade's stuff back toward his middle range."

"That's true enough," she admitted. "But----"

"But you thought he was doing it as a favor to you--getting his surplus
off your territory so your own cows would have a better chance. That's
the same kind of talk he floated all round the line; playing the
benevolent neighbor when in reality the old pirate had deliberately
planned, year after year, to overcrowd your range and feed you out."

"But his men would know," she objected.

"Not many of them would grasp the whole scheme of it," he said. "You
hadn't thought of it yourself. He'd detail a pair of boys to shove a
few hundred head way off to the south. A few days later another couple
would be throwing a bunch off northeast. See? And what if a few of
them did surmise? They're riding for his brand."

The girl nodded. That unalterable code again,--the religion of being
loyal to one's brand. Not one of Slade's men would balk at doing it
knowingly; each would do anything to advance his interests as long as
he drew his pay from Slade.

"I doubt if there's a dozen men within two hundred miles that haven't
lifted a few calves now and then for the brand they were riding for.
That's the way it goes. A rule that was fine to start--loyalty to the
hand that paid you; then carried too far until it's degenerated into a
tool that's often abused," he said.

As they talked Harris detailed men for each draw but when they reached
the point where they were due to drop down and cross the valley he
pulled up his horse.

"You take the rest of the circle, Carp," he instructed Carpenter. "I'm
going to ride off up the ridge a piece." The girl regarded him
curiously. No less than three times in the last week he had stopped
midway of the circle and asked her to complete it. Now he had turned
it over to Carp and he signaled her to remain with him.

"Where are we going?" she asked as she watched the men ride down toward
the bottoms. "And why?"

"Back the way we came," he said. "And maybe I can show you why."

He headed back the divide they had just followed until he came to the
saddle at the head of a draw that led down to the valley. Far below
them they could see a rider hazing a bunch of cows out into the
bottoms. High on the right-hand slope of the gulch lay a notch, a
little blind basin watered by the seepage fr