quite a few of them
doing nothing in the bank. That is, Larry has."

Grant's eyes twinkled. "It's no use, Breckenridge. I know the kind of man
he is. I'm going to send Miss Muller here, and we'll come round and pound
the foolishness out of you if you try to send back anything she brings
with her. This place is as cold as an ice-store. What's the matter with
your stove?"

"The stove's all right," and the man pointed to his leg. "The trouble is
that I've very little wood. Axe slipped the last time I went chopping in
the bluff, and the frost got into the cut. I couldn't make three miles on
one leg, and pack a load of billets on my back."

"But you'd freeze when those ran out, and they couldn't last you two
days," said Breckenridge, glancing at the little pile of fuel.

"Yes," said the man grimly. "I guess I would, unless one of the boys came
along."

"Anything wrong with your oxen?" asked Grant.

"Well," said the man drily, "we've been living for 'most two months on one
of them. I salted a piece of him; the rest's frozen. I had to sell the
other to a Dutchman. Since the cattle-boys stopped me ploughing I hadn't
much use for them, any way."

"Then," said Breckenridge, "why the devil did you bring a woman out to
this forsaken country?"

Perhaps the man understood what prompted the question, for he did not
resent it. "Where was I to take her to? I'm a farmer without dollars, and
I had to go somewhere when I'd lost three wheat crops in Dakota. Somebody
told me you had room for small farmers, and when I heard the land was to
be opened for homesteading, I sold out everything, and came on here to
begin again. Never saw a richer soil, and there's only one thing wrong
with the country."

"The men in it?" asked Breckenridge.

The farmer nodded, and a little glow crept into his eyes. "Yes," he said
fiercely. "The cattle-barons--and there'll be no room for anyone until
we've done away with them. We've no patience for more fooling. It has got
to be done."

"That's the executive's business," said Grant.

The man rose, with a little quiver of his lean frame and a big hand
clenched. "No," he said, "it's our business, and the business of every
honest citizen. If you don't tackle it right off, other men will put the
contract through."

"You'll have to talk plainer," said Grant.

"Well," said the farmer, "that's easy. It was you and some of the others
brought us in, and now we're here we're starving. There's land to feed a