d an
unoccupied bunk.

"Pay roll?" he inquired; then, as the new man nodded, "I'm most
generally referred to as Lanky," he offered tentatively. "Evans is the
rest of it."

The stranger hesitated appreciably; then:

"Harris will do all right for me--Cal for every day," he returned and
introductions had been effected. It was up to each man to use his own
individual method of making his name known to the newcomer as occasion
arose.

There had been much speculation about the brand worn by the two horses.
The hands were a drifting lot, gathered from almost as many points as
there were men present, but none of them knew the brand.

A dark, thin-faced man with a slender black mustache was the first to
voice a query, not from the fact that his curiosity was large--it was
perhaps less than that of any other man in the room--but for the reason
that he chose to satisfy it at once. Morrow's personality was cold and
bleak, inviting no close friendships or intimacies; uncommunicative to
a degree that had impressed itself on his companions of the last few
days and they looked up, mildly surprised at his abrupt interrogation.

"Box L," he commented. "Where does that brand run?"

"Southwest Kansas and Oklahoma," the stranger answered.

"Squatter country," Morrow said. "Every third section under fence."

Harris sat looking through the door at the valley spread out below and
after a moment he answered the thrust as if he had been long prepared
for it.

"Yes," he said. "And that's what all range country will come to in a
few more years; farm what they can and graze what they can't--and the
sooner the better for all concerned." He waved an arm down the valley.
"Good alfalfa dirt going to waste down there--overrun with sage and
only growing enough grass to keep ten cows to the quarter. If that was
ripped up and seeded to hay it would grow enough to winter five
thousand head."

This remark led to the old debate that was never-ending in the cow
country, breaking out afresh in every bunk house and exhaustively
rediscussed. There were men there who had viewed both ends of the
game,--had seen the foremost outfits in other parts tearing up the sage
and putting in hay for winter feed and had seen that this way was good.

Evans regarded Harris curiously as he deliberately provoked the
argument, then sat back and listened to the various ideas of the others
as the discussion became heated and general. It occurred to Evans that