necessary force.

Tisdale's eyes made a swift inventory of the poor shelter, half cabin,
partly shed, that evidently housed both the woman and her flock, then
searched the barren field for some sort of hitching post. But the few
bushes along the stream were small, kept low, doubtless, by the browsing
goats, and his glance rested on a fringe of poplars beyond the upper
fence.

"There's no way around," he said at last, and the amusement broke softly
in his face. "We will have to go through."

"The wicket will take the team singly," she answered, "but we must unhitch
and leave the buggy here."

"And first, if you think you can hold the colts that long, I must tackle
this thistle."

"I can manage," she said, and the sparkles danced in her eyes, "unless you
are vanquished."

The woman rose and stood glowering while he sprang down and drew the
wooden pin to open the wicket. Then, "You keep off my land," she ordered
sharply. "I will, madam," he answered quietly, "as soon as I am satisfied
it is yours."

"I've lived on this claim 'most five years," she screamed. "I'm
homesteading, and when I've used the water seven years, I get the rights."
She sprang backward with a cattish movement and caught up a gun that had
been concealed in some bushes. "Now you go," she said.

But Tisdale stayed. He stood weighing her with his steady, appraising
eyes, while he drew the township plat from his pocket.

"This is the quarter section I have come to look up. It starts here, you
see,"--and having unfolded the map, he turned to hold it under her
glance--"at the mouth of this gap, and lifts back through the pocket,
taking in the slopes to this bench and on up over this ridge to include
these springs."

The woman, curbing herself to look at the plat, allowed the rifle to
settle in the curve of her arm. "I piped the water down," she said. "This
stream was a dry gully. I fenced and put up a house."

"The tract was commuted and bought outright from the Government over seven
years ago." Tisdale's voice quickened; he set his lips dominantly and
folded the map. "I have copies of the field notes with me and the owner's
landscape plans. And I am a surveyor, madam. It won't take me long to find
out whether there is a mistake. But, before I go over the ground, I must
get my horses through to a hitching-place. I will have to lower that upper
fence, but if you will keep your goats together, I promise to put it back
as soon as the team is through