clear picture and the story would be limited to their own
misfortunes. Up to now, old Hulls Barrow has stood 'em off with a gun.
They don't want to kill him and they can't get possession.

"Now this Bar-O ranch is just over the hogback, south of us. There is
no road, just a trail over the ridge. The Barrows use the other road.
I don't know how big it is. The surveys in these hills stay in the
valleys; the lines run from point to promontory. The units are miles,
not rods. Tranquil Meadows, a fine area of grassland, is just south of
the Bar-O. Had the Silver Falls project been a success, the government
would have done the same with the Meadows tract. A road blasted
through the hills would have connected the two tracts.

"Old Matt Barrow was one of the early settlers. Grandfather's feud
with him had early beginnings. I don't think it was personal, for they
rarely met. Grandaddy was outstanding as a law enforcer and here was a
petty offender right under his nose. Barrow had no cattle brand until
they made him use one. He was uneducated, couldn't spell his own name,
and his name, in the records, is spelled in several ways. He had no
fences and would employ any misfit or doubtful that came along. He
seemed to prey on one side of the ridge and sell on the other. But in
all the years he escaped conviction of even a minor offense. In an
early day, a lone prospector was missing. Everybody had ideas, but no
evidence. Dan Hale's stacks were burned. No evidence. And so it ran
through the years.

"Barrow raised two boys. This Hulls, who is standing off the law with
a gun, and Archie, who disappeared in about a year after Maizie came.
The boys surely must have had a mother, but there is no record or
rumor of a death or burial. The same is true of old Clemmy Pruitt, who
went there to live. Old Matt Barrow must have maintained a private
cemetery and conducted the funerals.

"The boys, Hulls and Archie, grew up to be old bachelors. They carried
on in about the same fashion as the old man. Maybe they visited the
settlements and got drunk oftener than he did, but the Bar-O continued
as a mystery and a sore spot in a neighborhood that was struggling up
from primitive ways." Adine paused to chuckle a bit at the midget's
interest in the recital. The little man's eyes were glued on the
speaker, he missed never a word.

"You are marveling how I know so much about a thing that is based on
hearsay and rumors," continued the narrator as she