lope meant scrub underbrush, if there was any meaning at all in
them. But her riders could tell not only whether they were alive, but
could differentiate between sheep and cattle. Indeed, McWilliams could
nearly always tell whether they were HER cattle or not. He was unable to
explain to her how he did it. By a sort of instinct, she supposed.

The pines were negotiated in safety, and on the part of the men with a
carelessness she could not understand. For after they had passed
there was a spot between her shoulder-blades that seemed to tingle in
expectation of a possible bullet boring its way through. But she would
have died rather than let them know how she felt.

Perhaps Bannister understood, however, for he remarked casually: "I
wouldn't be ambling past so leisurely if I was riding alone. It makes
a heap of difference who your company is, too. Those punchers wouldn't
take a chance at me now for a million dollars."

"No, they're some haidstrong, but they ain't plumb locoed," agreed Mac.

Fifteen minutes later Helen drew up at the line corner. "We'll part
company here, Mr. Bannister. I don't think there is any more danger from
my men."

"Before we part there is something I want to say. I hold that a man has
as much right to run sheep on these hills as cows. It's government land,
and neither one of us owns it. It's bound to be a case of the survival
of the fittest. If sheep are hardier and more adapted to the country,
then cows have got to vamos. That's nature, as it looks to me. The
buffalo and the antelope have gone, and I guess cows have got to take
their turn."

Her scornful eyes burned him. "You came to tell me that, did you? Well,
I don't believe a word of it. I'll not yield my rights without a fight.
You may depend on that."

"Here, too," nodded her foreman. "I'm with my boss clear down the line.
And as soon as she lets me turn loose my six-gun, you'll hear it pop,
seh."

"I have not a doubt of it, Mr. McWilliams," returned the sheepman
blithely. "In the meantime I was going to say that though most of my
interests are in sheep instead of cattle--"

"I thought most of your interests were in other people's property,"
interrupted the young woman.

"It goes into sheep ultimately," he smiled. "Now, what I am trying to
get at is this: I'm in debt to you a heap, Miss Messiter, and since I'm
not all yellow cur, I intend to play fair with you. I have ordered my
sheep back across the deadline. You can have this