d. He had loved it
always, since first he had come here as John Carr's guest. He loved
it now with a mounting passion. It flashed over him that when, at some
far-distant time, he should die, this was the one spot upon God's great
earth where he should want his ashes scattered on the little wind which
came down from the hills. It was a part of him and he a part of it.
And as he loved it and yearned for it utterly, so did Helen love it.

'It is going to be mine and yours, my dear.' He spoke aloud, his voice
stern with his determination. 'For us to have and to hold.'

And because of the thought and the knowledge of what lay ahead of him,
he knew that for the present he must forego that to which he had looked
forward all day. He must for a little postpone a ride to see Helen.
For already he foresaw the calls upon his time; short-handed, it was to
be work for him from long before day until long after dark. As he
started down the hill into the valley he saw a herd of cattle coming
from the north. He had a round-up on his hands to begin with, and it
was already beginning.

Chapter XXI

Almost

Long hours and hard work in the cattle country mean that a man slips
from his saddle into his bunk and to sleep, and from his bunk into his
saddle again, with only time to bolt his food and hot coffee
infrequently and at irregular intervals. Chuck Evans had obeyed
orders; the ranch was short-handed and the 'old-timers' remaining
cursed a little, to be sure, at the new order of things, but understood
and went to work. Howard, when he met them all at supper long after
dark, noted how their sunburned eyes turned upon him speculatively.
And he knew that in their own parlance every mother's son of them was
ready to go the limit if the old man set the pace. That night, when
the others trooped off to bed, he detained Chuck Evans and Plug Oliver
and Dave Terril for a brief conference. To them he gave in what detail
he could his latest plans. Also, since they were friends as well as
hired hands, he told them frankly of his difficulties and of his
success with Engle. When the men left him they had accepted his fight
as their own.

The first man in the saddle the next day was Howard. He ordered the
tally taken of every head of stock on his ranch. This alone, since his
acres were broad and since his stock grazed free over thousands of
acres lying adjacent to Desert Valley on three sides, was a big task.
Already, durin