a moment a trace
of embarrassment in his face; but he smiled carelessly.

"The fact is, dollars are rather tight with me just now," he said. "You'll
have to wait a little if I'm to do as much as the rest of you. I am,
however, quite willing."

"I'll lend you them," said Torrance. "Allonby, I'll make that cheque a
thousand. You have got it down?"

Allonby accepted office, and one of the other men rose up. "Now it seems
to me that Torrance is right, and with our leases expired or running out,
we're all in the same tight place," he said. "The first move is to get
every man holding cattle land from here to the barren country to stand in,
and then, one way or another, we'll freeze out the homesteaders. Well,
then, we'll constitute ourselves a committee, with Torrance as head
executive, and as we want to know just what the others are doing, my
notion is that he should start off to-morrow and ride round the country.
If there are any organizations ready, it might suit us to affiliate with
them."

It was agreed to, and Clavering said, "It seems to me, sir, that the first
question is, 'Could we depend upon the boys if we wanted them?'"

Torrance strode to an open window and blew a silver whistle. Its shrill
note had scarcely died away when a mounted man came up at a gallop, and a
band of others in haste on foot. They stopped in front of the window,
picturesque in blue shirts and long boots, sinewy, generously fed, and
irresponsibly daring.

"Boys," he said, "you've been told there's a change coming, and by and by
this country will have no more use for you. Now, if any folks came here
and pulled our boundaries up to let the mean whites from back east in,
what are you going to do?"

There was a burst of hoarse laughter. "Ride them down," said one retainer,
with the soft blue eyes of a girl and a figure of almost matchless
symmetry.

"Grow feathers on them," said another. "Ride them back to the railroad on
a rail."

"I scarcely think that would be necessary," said Torrance quietly. "Still,
you'd stand behind the men who pay you?"

There was a murmur that expressed a good deal, though it was inarticulate,
and a man stood forward.

"You've heard them, sir," he said. "Well, we'll do just what you want us
to. This is the cattle-baron's country, and we're here. It's good enough
for us, and if it means lots of trouble we're going to stay here."

Torrance raised his hand, and when the men moved away turned with a little
gr