ce rose sharply and commandingly.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded.

There was no answer for several moments, and then a man stepped forward
gesticulating fiercely as he commenced a tirade that was less than half
intelligible. Larry checked him with a lifted hand.

"There's a good deal of that I can't quite understand, and the rest
doesn't seem to fit this case," he said, with a laugh that had more effect
upon some of those who heard it than a flow of eloquence would have had.
"Boys, we have no use for worrying about the meanness of European kings
and folks of that kind. If you have brought any along I'd sooner listen to
sensible Americans."

Another man stepped forward, and there was no doubt about his accent,
though his tone was deprecatory.

"Well, it just comes to this," he said. "Torrance and the cattle-men have
done their best to starve us and freeze us out, and, since he has made it
plain that there's no room for both of us, somebody has got to go. Now, we
have come a long way and we mean to stay. We're not looking for trouble,
but we want our rights."

There was a murmur of encouragement from the rest, but again Larry's laugh
had its effect. "Then you're taking a kind of curious way of getting
them," he said. "I don't know that trying to burn folks' houses ever did
anybody much good, and it's quite likely to bring a regiment of United
States cavalry down on you. Mr. Torrance, I fancied I heard firing. Have
you anybody hurt inside?"

"One of your men," said Torrance drily. "We hope to pull him round, and
let the Sheriff have him."

It was not a conciliatory answer, and came near undoing what Grant had
accomplished; but the grim old cattle-baron was not the man to propitiate
an enemy. A murmur followed it, and somebody said, "Boys, you hear him!
Bring along that wagon. We're going in."

The form of speech was Western, but the voice was guttural, and when there
was a rattle of wheels Grant suddenly changed his tone.

"Stop right there," he said. "Throw every truss of hay down. The man who
holds off when I tell him what to do is going to have trouble with the
executive."

It was a bold venture, and any sign of effort or unevenness of inflection
would have rendered it futile, but the voice was sharp and ringing, and
the fashion in which the horseman flung up his arm commanding. It was,
also, tactful, for some of those who heard it had been drilled into
unreflecting obedience, and there is in the n