th his face to the foe. To these ardent young patriots the
place was holy ground, and their pulses leaped and their hearts swelled
as Melton pointed out the features of the field and narrated some of the
incidents of that awful, but magnificent, fight. It was with intense
reluctance that, warned by the gathering shadows, they tore themselves
away.

"Can't wait any longer now," said Melton as they retraced their steps to
the place where the horses were browsing; "but some day soon we'll come
down here early and spend the whole day. It won't be any too long to get
a clear idea of the fight and all that led up to it."

The mustangs, refreshed by the rest, and feeling too that they were on
the last stretch of their journey, needed no urging, and Melton gave them
their head.

"Must be pretty near your place now, I suppose," said Tom.

"Well, yes," answered Melton, with a twinkle in his eyes; "been traveling
on my lands for the last eight miles. House not more than five miles
ahead."

The boys gasped. It was something new to them to hear one speak as
carelessly of miles as a farmer back East would speak of acres. Now they
were getting some idea of what was meant when one spoke of the "boundless
West."

"Got to have room to stretch my arms without hitting anything," went on
Melton. "Of course, I don't use much of it for farming. Just raise enough
to take care of the table and the stock. But for grazing there ain't any
better pasture for cattle in the whole State of Montana."

"Then all the cattle we've seen grazing by thousands for the last few
miles belong to you?" asked Dick, as soon as he had recovered from his
surprise.

"Sure thing," returned their host, "and they're only a few of them. It
would take a cowboy the better part of a day to start at one end of the
ranch and circle around it. And there's plenty of ranches in the State
bigger than mine."

Now the going was steadily uphill and the horses subsided to a walk. They
were in the foothills of the Rockies. In the gathering dusk they could
see ahead of them the mighty peaks in the background rising to a height
of many thousand feet. Higher and higher they went, until they were as
much as six hundred feet above sea level. If they had had no other proof
they would have found it in the increasing rarity of the air and the
slightly greater difficulty in breathing.

"You'll soon get used to that," said Melton. "After a day or two you
won't notice any difference.