eerfulness and tried to unload their holdings on any chance stranger.

A trickle of water came through the ditch that had been scratched in the
earth from the mountains to some three miles beyond Prouty. Nearly every
head-gate the length of it had been the scene of a bloody battle where
the ranchers fought each other with irrigating shovels for their rights.
And, after all, it was seldom worth the gore and effort, for the trickle
generally stopped altogether in August when they needed it. If the flow
did not stop at the intake it broke out somewhere below and flooded
somebody. If the sides did not give way because of the moisture
loosening the soil, the rats and prairie dogs conspired to ruin Prouty
by tunneling into the banks. And if by a miracle "the bone and sinew" of
the community raised one cutting of alfalfa, the proceeds went to the
Security State Bank, or Abram Pantin, to keep up their 12 per cent.
interest.

When the route to the Coast was shortened by one of the state's
railroads and Prouty found itself on the cutoff, it was delirious with
joy, but it regained its balance when the fast trains not only did not
stop, but seemed to speed up instead of slackening; while the local
which brought any prospective investor deposited him in a frame of mind
which was such that it was seldom possible to remove his prejudice
against the country.

These were the conditions one spring day when the buds that had not
already burst were bursting and Mr. Teeters dashed into Prouty. "Dashed"
is not too strong a word to describe his arrival, for the leaders of his
four-horse team were running away and the wheelers were, at least, not
lagging. It was obvious to those familiar with Mr. Teeters' habits that
he was en route to the station to meet incoming passengers. This was
proclaimed by his conveyance and regalia. He wore a well-filled
cartridge belt and six-shooter, while a horse hair watch chain draped
across a buckskin waistcoat, ornate with dyed porcupine quills, gave an
additional Western flavor to his costume. His beaded gauntlets reached
to his elbow, and upon occasions like the present he wore moccasins.
There was a black silk handkerchief around the neck of his red flannel
shirt, and if the rattlesnake skin that encircled his Stetson did not
bring a scream from the lady dudes when they caught sight of it, Teeters
would feel keenly disappointed.

"I can wrangle dudes to a fare-ye-well and do good at it," Teeters had
dec