im smile to his guests. "They'll be quite as good as their word," he
said.

Then he led them back to the table, and when the decanter had gone round,
one of the younger men stood up.

"We want a constitution, gentlemen, and I'll give you one," he said. "The
Cedar District Stockraisers' Committee incorporated to-day with for sole
object the defence of our rights as American citizens!"

Clavering rose with the others, but there was a little ironical smile in
his eyes as he said, "If necessary against any unlawful encroachments made
by the legislature!"

Torrance turned upon him sternly. "No, sir!" he said. "By whatever means
may appear expedient!"

The glasses were lifted high, and when they had laid them down the men
rode away, though only one or two of them realized the momentous issues
which they and others had raised at about much the same time. They had
not, however, met in conclave too soon, for any step that man makes
forward towards a wider life is usually marked by strife, and the shadow
of coming trouble was already upon the land. It had deepened little by
little, and the cattle-barons had closed their eyes, as other men who have
held the reins have done since the beginning, until the lean hands of the
toilers fastened upon them, and fresh horrors added to an ancient wrong
were the price of liberty that was lost again. They had done good service
to their nation, with profit to themselves, and would not see that the
times were changing and that the nation had no longer need of them.

Other men, however, at least suspected it, and there was an expectant
gathering one hot afternoon in the railroad depot of a little wooden town
where Grant stood waiting for the west-bound train. There was little to
please the eye about the station, and still less about the town. Straight
out of the great white levels ran the glistening track, and an unsightly
building of wood and iron rose from the side of it, flanked by a towering
water-tank. A pump rattled under it, and the smell of creosote was
everywhere. Cattle corrals ran back from the track, and beyond them
sun-rent frame houses roofed with cedar shingles straggled away on the one
hand, paintless, crude, and square. On the other, a smear of trail led the
dazzled vision back across the parched levels to the glancing refraction
on the horizon, and the figure of a single horseman showing dimly through
a dust cloud emphasized their loneliness. The town was hot and dusty, its