wouldn't give up. Why----"

Brit gave her a tolerant glance. "Where'd you see all that, Raine?"
He moved to the table, picked up his pipe and knocked out the ashes on
the stove hearth. His movements were those of an aging man--yet Brit
Hunter was not old, as age is reckoned.

"Well--in stories--but it was reasonable and logical and possible, just
the same. If you use your brains you can outwit them, and if you have
any nerve----"

Brit made a sound somewhat like a snort. "These days, when politics is
played by the big fellows, and the law is used to make money for 'em,
it takes nerve just to hang on," he said. "Nobody but a dang fool
would fight." Slow anger grew within him. He turned upon Lorraine
almost fiercely. "D'yuh think me and Frank could fight the Sawtooth
and get anything out of it but a coffin apiece, maybe?" he demanded
harshly. "Don't the Sawtooth _own_ this country? Warfield's got the
sheriff in his pocket, and the cor'ner, and the judge, and the stock
inspector--he's _Senator_ Warfield, and what he wants he gets. He gets
through the law that you was talking about a little while ago. What
you goin' to do about it? If I had the money and the land and the
political pull he's got, mebby I'd have me sheriff and a judge, too.

"Fred Thurman tried to fight the Sawtooth over a water right he owned
and they wanted. They had the case runnin' in court till they like to
of took the last dollar he had. He got bull-headed. That water right
meant the hull ranch--everything he owned. You can't run a ranch
without water. And when he'd took the case up and up till it got to
the Supreme Court, and he stood some show of winnin' out--he had an
accident. He was drug to death by his horse."

Brit stooped and opened the stove door, seeking a live coal; found none
and turned again to Lorraine, shaking his pipe at her for emphasis.

"We try to prove Fred was murdered, and what's the result? Something
happens: to me, mebby, or Frank, or both of us. And you can't say,
'Here, I know the Sawtooth had a hand in that.' You got to _prove_ it!
And when you've proved it," he added bitterly, "you got to have
officers that'll carry out the law instead of using it to hog-tie yuh."

His futile, dull anger surged up again. "You call us cowards because
we don't git up on our hind legs and fight the Sawtooth. A lot you
know about courage! You've read stories, and you've saw moving
pictures, and you think that's th