e whole Sheepmen's Association, with money
enough in its treasury to send up every cowman in the Four Peaks
country! What I want to know is this--will you fight?"

"I might," answered Hardy quietly.

"Oh, you might, hey?" jeered the sheepman, tapping his pipe ominously
on the sidewalk. "You might, he-ey? Well, look at Jeff Creede--_he_
fought--and what's he got to show for it? Look at his old man--_he_
fought--and where is he now? Tell me that!

"But, say, now," he exclaimed, changing his tone abruptly, "this ain't
what I started to talk about. I want to speak with you, Mr. Hardy, on
a matter of business. You jest think them things over until I see you
again--and, of course, all this is on the q. t. But now let's talk
business. When you want to buy a postage stamp you come down here to
Moroni, don't you? And why? Why, because it's near, sure! But when you
want a wagon-load of grub--and there ain't no one sells provisions
cheaper than I do, beans four-fifty, bacon sixteen cents, flour a
dollar-ninety, everything as reasonable--you haul it clean across the
desert from Bender. That easy adds a cent a pound on every ton you
pull, to say nothin' of the time. Well, what I want to know is this:
Does Einstein sell you grub that much cheaper? Take flour, for
instance--what does that cost you?"

"I don't know," answered Hardy, whose anger was rising under
this unwarranted commercial badgering. "Same as with you, I
suppose--dollar-ninety."

"Ah!" exclaimed Swope triumphantly, "and the extra freight on a sack
would be fifty cents, wouldn't it--a cent a pound, and a fifty-pound
sack! Well, now say, Hardy, we're good friends, you know, and all
that--and Jasp and me steered all them sheep around you, you
recollect--what's the matter with your buying your summer supplies off
of me? I'll guarantee to meet any price that Bender Sheeny can
make--and, of course, I'll do what's right by you--but, by Joe, I
think you owe it to me!"

He paused and waited impatiently for his answer, but once more Hardy
balked him.

"I don't doubt there's a good deal in what you say, Mr. Swope," he
said, not without a certain weariness, "but you'll have to take that
matter up with Judge Ware."

"Don't you have the ordering of the supplies?" demanded Swope
sharply.

"Yes, but he pays for them. All I do is to order what I want and O. K.
the bills. My credit is good with Einstein, and the rate lies between
him and Judge Ware."

"Well, your credit is