n this range but Swan
Carlson, and I reckon Swan only respects 'em because they're the only
men in this country that packs guns regular any more."

"Swan don't pack a gun as a regular thing?"

"I ain't never seen him with one on. Hector Hall he's always got a
couple of 'em on him, and Matt mostly has one in sight. You can gamble
on it he's got an automatic in his pocket when he don't strap it on
him in the open."

"I don't see what use a man's got for a gun up here among sheep and
sheepmen. They must be expecting somebody to call on them from the old
neighborhood."

"Yes, I figger that's about the size of it. I don't know what Matt was
doin' over around here this evenin'; I know I didn't send for him."

"Joan spoke of him this afternoon. From what she said, I thought he
must be something of a specimen. What kind of a looking duck is he?"

"Matt's a mixture of a goriller and a goose egg. He's a long-armed,
short-legged, gimlet-eyed feller with a head like a egg upside down.
You could split a board on that feller's head and never muss a hair. I
never saw a man that had a chin like Matt Hall. They say a big chin's
the sign of strength, and if that works out Matt must have a mind like
a brigadier general. His face is all chin; chin's an affliction on
Matt Hall; it's a disease. Wait till you see him; that's all I can
say."

"I'll know him when I do."

"Hector ain't so bad, but he's got a look in his eyes like a man
that'd grab you by the nose and cut your throat, and grin while he was
doin' it."

Mackenzie made no comment on these new and picturesque characters
introduced by Dad into the drama that was forming for enactment in
that place. He filled his pipe and smoked a little while. Then:

"How many sheep do they run?" he asked.

"Nine or ten thousand, I guess."

Silence again. Dad was smoking a little Mexican cigarette with
corn-husk wrapper, a peppery tobacco filling that smarted the eyes
when it burned, of which he must have carried thousands when he left
the border in the spring.

"Tim was over today," said Mackenzie.

"What did he want?"

"About this business between him and me. Is it usual, Dad, for a man
to work a year at forty dollars a month and found before he goes in as
a partner on the increase of the flock he runs?"

"What makes you ask me that, John?"

"Only because there wasn't anything said about it when I agreed with
Tim to go to work here with you and learn the rudiments of handling