, where they sat down for a long talk. Mose followed them
silently and sat near to listen.

"Now, Dan'l," Jake began, "I'm mighty glad you've come and brought this
yer young feller. We need ye both bad! It's like this"--he paused and
looked around; "I don't want the wimern folks to hear," he explained.
"Times is goin' to be lively here, shore. They's a big fight on 'twixt
us truck farmers and the cattle ranchers. You see, the cattlemen has had
the free range so long they naturally 'low they own it, and they have
the nerve to tell us fellers to keep off. They explain smooth enough
that they ain't got nawthin' agin me pussonally--you understand--only
they 'low me settlin' h'yer will bring others, which is shore about
right, fer h'yer you be, kit an' caboodle. Now you comin' in will set
things a-whoopin', an' it ain't no Sunday-school picnic we're a-facin'.
We're goin' to plant some o' these men before this is settled. The hull
cattle business is built up on robbing the Government. I've said so, an'
they're down on me already."

As Jake talked the night fell, and the boy's hair began to stir. A wolf
was "yapping" on a swell, and a far-off heron was uttering his booming
cry. Over the ridges, which cut sharply into the fleckless dull-yellow
sky, lay unknown lands out of which almost any variety of fierce
marauder might ride. Surely this was the wild country of which he had
read, where men could talk so glibly of murder and violent death.

"When I moved in here three years ago," continued Jake, "they met me and
told me to get out. I told 'em I weren't takin' a back track that year.
One night they rode down a-whoopin' and a-shoutin', and I natcherly
poked my gun out'n the winder and handed out a few to 'em--an' they rode
off. Next year quite a little squad o' truck farmers moved into the bend
just below, an' we got together and talked it over and agreed to stand
by. We planted two more o' them, and they got one on us. They control
the courts, and so we have got to fight. They've got a judge that suits
'em now, and this year will be hot--it will, sure."

Dan'l Pratt smoked for a full minute before he said: "You didn't write
nothin' of this, Jake."

Jake grinned. "I didn't want to disappoint you, Dan. I knew your heart
was set on comin'."

"Wal, I didn't 'low fer to hunt up no furss," Dan slowly said; "but the
feller that tramps on me is liable to sickness."

Jake chuckled. "I know that, Dan; but how about this young fell