The Flying U's Last Stand ..................................................................................................................................1

B. M. Bower .............................................................................................................................................1

CHAPTER 1. OLD WAYS AND NEW .................................................................................................1

CHAPTER 2. ANDY GREEN'S NEW ACQUAINTANCE ..................................................................3

CHAPTER 3. THE KID LEARNS SOME THINGS ABOUT HORSES ..............................................9

CHAPTER 4. ANDY TAKES A HAND IN THE GAME ...................................................................15

CHAPTER 5. THE HAPPY FAMILY TURN NESTERS ...................................................................20

CHAPTER 6. THE FIRST BLOW IN THE FIGHT............................................................................25

CHAPTER 7. THE COMING OF THE COLONY ..............................................................................29

CHAPTER 8. FLORENCE GRACE HALLMAN SPEAKS PLAINLY.............................................36

CHAPTER 9. THE HAPPY FAMILY BUYS A BUNCH OF CATTLE............................................41

CHAPTER 10. WHEREIN ANDY GREEN LIES TO A LADY........................................................44

CHAPTER 11. A MOVING CHAPTER IN EVENTS........................................................................48

REMOVED ............................................................................................................................................53

CHAPTER 13. IRISH WORKS FOR THE CAUSE ............................................................................59

CHAPTER 14. JUST ONE THING AFTER ANOTHER ....................................................................66

CHAPTER 15. THE KID HAS IDEAS OF HIS OWN ........................................................................71

CHAPTER 16. "A RELL OLD COWPUNCHER" ..............................................................................76

CHAPTER 17. "LOST CHILD" ...........................................................................................................78

CHAPTER 18. THE LONG WAY ROUND ........................................................................................83

CHAPTER 19. HER NAME WAS ROSEMARY...............................................................................87

CHAPTER 20. THE RELL OLE COWPUNCHER GOES HOME .....................................................91

CHAPTER 21. THE FIGHT GOES ON ...............................................................................................93

CHAPTER 22. LAWFUL IMPROVEMENTS....................................................................................96

CHAPTER 23. THE WATER QUESTION AND SOME GOSSIP .....................................................98

CHAPTER 24. THE KID IS USED FOR A PAWN IN THE GAME...............................................102

CHAPTER 25. "LITTLE BLACK SHACK'S ALL BURNT UP" .....................................................106

CHAPTER 26. ROSEMARY ALLEN DOES A SMALL SUM IN ADDITION ..............................109

CHAPTER 27. "ITS AWFUL EASY TO GET LOST".....................................................................111

CHAPTER 28. AS IT TURNED OUT ...............................................................................................115

Progress is like the insidious change from youth to old age, except that progress does not mean decay. The

change that is almost imperceptible and yet inexorable is much the same, however. You will see a community

apparently changeless as the years pass by; and yet, when the years have gone and you look back, there has

been a change. It is not the same. It never will be the same. It can pass through further change, but it cannot

go back. Men look back sick sometimes with longing for the things that were and that can be no more; they

live the old days in memorybut try as they will they may not go back. With intelligent, persistent effort

they may retard further change considerably, but that is the most that they can hope to do. Civilization and

That is the way it was with the Flying U. Old J. G. Whitmore fought doggedly against the changing

conditionsand he fought intelligently and well. When he saw the range dwindling and the way to the

watering places barred against his cattle with long stretches of barbed wire, he sent his herds deeper into the

Badlands to seek what grazing was in the hidden, little valleys and the deep, sequestered canyons. He cut

more hay for winter feeding, and he sowed his meadows to alfalfa that he might increase the crops. He

shipped old cows and dry cows with his fat steers in the fall, and he bettered the blood of his herds and raised

bigger cattle. Therefore, if his cattle grew fewer in number, they improved in quality and prices went higher,

It began to look, then, as though J. G. Whitmore was cunningly besting the situation, and was going to hold

out indefinitely against the encroachments of civilization upon the old order of things on the range. And it

had begun to look as though he was going to best Time at his own game, and refuse also to grow old; as

though he would go on being the same pudgy, grizzled, humorously querulous Old Man beloved of his men,

Sometimes, however, Time will fill a fourflush with the joker, and then laugh while he rakes in the chips. J.

G. Whitmore had been going his way and refusing to grow old for a long timeand then an accident, which

is Time's joker, turned the game against him. He stood for just a second too long on a crowded crossing in

Chicago, hesitating between going forward or back. And that second gave Time a chance to play an accident.

A big sevenpassenger touring car mowed him down and left him in a heap for the ambulance from the

The Old Man did not die; he had lived long on the open range and he was pretty tough and hard to kill. He

went back to his beloved Flying U, with a crutch to help him shuffle from bed to easy chair and back again.

The Little Doctor, who was his youngest sister, nursed him tirelessly; but it was long before there came a day

when the Old Man gave his crutch to the Kid to use for a stickhorse, and walked through the living room

and out upon the porch with the help of a cane and the solicitous arm of the Little Doctor, and with the Kid

Later he discarded the help of somebody's arm, and hobbled down to the corral with the cane, and with the

Kid still galloping before him on "Uncle Gee Gee's" crutch. He stood for some time leaning against the corral

watching some of the boys halterbreaking a horse that was later to be soldwhen he was "broke

gentle"and then he hobbled back again, thankful for the soft comfort of his big chair.

That was well enough, as far as it went. The Flying U took it for granted that the Old Man was slowly

returning to the old order of life, when rheumatism was his only foe and he could run things with his old

energy and easy good management. But there never came a day when the Old Man gave his cane to the kid to

play with. There never came a day when he was not thankful for the soft comfort of his chair. There never

came a day when he was the same Old Man who joshed the boys and scolded them and threatened them. The

day was always coming of course!when his back would quit aching if he walked to the stable and back

So, imperceptibly but surely, the Old Man began to grow old. The thin spot on top of his head grew shiny, so

that the Kid noticed it and made blunt comments upon the subject. His rheumatism was not his worst foe,

now. He had to pet his digestive apparatus and cut out strong coffee with three heaping teaspoons of sugar in

each cup, because the Little Doctor told him his liver was torpid. He had to stop giving the Kid jolty rides on

his knees,but that was because the Kid was getting too big for baby play, the Old Man declared. The Kid

was big enough to ride real horses, now, and he ought to be ashamed to ride kneehorses any more.

To two things the Old Man clung almost fiercely; the old regime of ranging his cattle at large and starting out

the wagons in the spring just the same as if twentyfive men instead of twelve went with them; and the

retention of the Happy Family on his payroll, just as if they were actually needed. If one of the boys left to try

other things and other fields, the Old Man considered him gone on a vacation and expected him back when

True, he was seldom disappointed in that. For the Happy Family looked upon the Flying U as home, and six

months was about the limit for straying afar. Cowpunchers to the bone though they were, they bent backs

over irrigating ditches and sweated in the hay fields just for the sake of staying together on the ranch. I cannot

say that they did it uncomplaininglyfor the bunkhouse was saturated to the ridgepole with their

maledictions while they compared blistered hands and pitchfork callouses, and mourned the days that were

gone; the days when they rode far and free and scorned any work that could not be done from the saddle. But

they stayed, and they did the ranch work as well as the range work, which is the main point.

They became engaged to certain girls who filled their dreams and all their waking thoughtsbut they never

quite came to the point of marrying and going their way. Except Pink, who did marry impulsively and

unwisely, and who suffered himself to be bullied and called Percy for seven months or so, and who balked at

leaving the Flying U for the city and a vicarious existence in theaterdom, and so found himself free quite as

They intended to marry and settle downsometime. But there was always something in the way of carrying

those intentions to fulfillment, so that eventually the majority of the Happy Family found themselves not

even engaged, but drifting along toward permanent bachelorhood. Being of the optimistic type, however, they

did not worry; Pink having set before them a fine example of the failure of marriage and having returned with

Andy Green, chief prevaricator of the Happy Family of the Flying Uand not ashamed of either title or

connection pushed his new Stetson back off his untanned forehead, attempted to negotiate the narrow

passage into a Pullman sleeper with his suitcase swinging from his right hand, and butted into a woman who

was just emerging from the dressingroom. He butted into her so emphatically that he was compelled to swing

his left arm out very quickly, or see her go headlong into the window opposite; for a fullsized suitcase

propelled forward by a muscular young man may prove a very efficient instrument of disaster, especially if it

catches one just in the hollow back of the knee. The woman tottered and grasped Andy convulsively to save

herself a fall, and so they stood blocking the passage until the porter arrived and took the suitcase from Andy

Andy apologized profusely, with a quaint, cowpunchery phrasing that caused the woman to take a second

look at him. And, since Andy Green would look good to any woman capable of recognizingand

appreciatinga real man when she saw him, she smiled and said it didn't matter in the least.

That was the beginning of the acquaintance. Andy took her by her plump, chiffonveiled arm and piloted her

to her seat, and he afterward tipped the porter generously and had his own belongings deposited in the section

across the aisle. Then, with the guile of a foreign diplomat, he betook himself to the smokingroom and

stayed there for three quarters of an hour. He was not taking any particular risk of losing the opportunity of an

unusually pleasant journey, for the dollar he had invested in the goodwill of the porter had yielded the

information that the lady was going through to Great Falls. Since Andy had boarded the train at Harlem there

was plenty of time to kill between there and Dry Lake, which was his destination.

The lady smiled at him rememberingly when finally he seated himself across the aisle from her, and without

any serious motive Andy smiled back. So presently they were exchanging remarks about the journey. Later

on, Andy went over and sat beside her and conversation began in earnest. Her name, it transpired, was

Florence Grace Hallman. Andy read it engraved upon a card which added the information that she was

engaged in the real estate businessor so the three or four words implied. "Homemakers' Syndicate,

Minneapolis and St. Paul," said the card. Andy was visibly impressed thereby. He looked at her with swift

Florence Grace Hallman was tall and daintily muscular as to figure. Her hair was a light yellownot quite

the shade which peroxide gives, and therefore probably natural. Her eyes were brown, a shade too close

together but cool and calm and calculating in their gaze, and her eyebrows slanted upward a bit at the outer

ends and were as heavy as beauty permitted. Her lips were very red, and her chin was very firm. She looked

the successful business woman to her fingertips, and she was eminently attractive for a woman of that

Andy was attractive also, in a purely Western way. His gray eyes were deceivingly candid and his voice was

pleasant with a little, humorous drawl that matched well the quirk of his lips when he talked. He was headed

for homewhich was the Flying Usober and sunny and with enough money to see him through. He told

Florence Hallman his name, and said that he lived "up the road a ways" without being too definite. Florence

Hallman lived in Minneapolis, she said; though she traveled most of the time, in the interests of her firm.

Yes, she liked the real estate business. One had a chance to see the world, and keep in touch with people and

things. She liked the West especially well. Since her firm had taken up the homeseekers' line she spent most

They had suppershe called it dinner, Andy observed together, and Andy Green paid the check, which

was not so small. It was after that, when they became more confidential, that Florence Hallman, with the

egotism of the successful person who believes herself or himself to be of keen interest to the listener spoke in

Her firm's policy was, she said, to locate a large tract of government land somewhere, and then organize a

homeseekers' colony, and settle the landhungry upon the tractat so much per hunger. She thought it a

great scheme for both sides of the transaction. The men who wanted claims got them. The firm got the fee for

She thought that Andy himself would be a success at the business. She was quick to form her opinions of

people whom she met, and she knew that Andy was just the man for such work. Andy, listening with his

candid, gray eyes straying often to her face and dwelling there, modestly failed to agree with her. He did not

know the first thing about the real estate business, he confessed, nor very much about ranching. Oh, yeshe

"The point is right here," said Florence Grace Hallman, laying her pink fingertips upon his arm and glancing

behind her to make sure that they were practically alonetheir immediate neighbors being still in the diner.

"I'm speaking merely upon impulsewhich isn't a wise thing to do, ordinarily. Butwell, your eyes vouch

for you, Mr. Green, and we women are bound to act impulsively sometimesor we wouldn't be women,

would we?" She laughedrather, she gave a little, infectious giggle, and took away her fingers, to the regret

"The point is here. I've recognized the fact, all along, that we need a man stationed right here, living in the

country, who will meet prospective homesteaders and talk farming; keep up their enthusiasm; whip the

doubters into line; talk climate and soil and the future of the country; look the part, you understand."

"No, of course you don't!" She laid her fingers on his sleeve again, which was what Andy wantedwhat he

had intended to bait her into doing; thereby proving that, in some respects at least, he amply justified Hiss

"Of course you don't look like a rube! I don't want you to. But you do look Westernbecause you are

Western to the bone Besides, you look perfectly dependable. Nobody could look into your eyes and even

think of doubting the truth of any statement you made to them." Andy snickered mentally at that though his

eyes never lost their clear candor. "And," she concluded, "being a bona fide resident of the country, your

word would carry more weight than mine if I were to talk myself black in the face!"

"Well, you must let me have my own opinion, Mr. Green. You would be convincing enough, at any rate. You

see, there is a certain per cent oflet us call it waste effortin this colonization business. We have to

reckon on a certain number of nibblers who won't bite" Andy's honest, gray eyes widened a hair's breadth

at the frankness of her language" when they get out here. They swallow the folders we send out, but when

they get out here and see the country, they can't see it as a rich farming district, and they won't invest. They

"My idea is to stop that waste; to land every homeseeker that boards our excursion trains. And I believe the

way to do that is to have the right kind of a man out here, steer the doubtfuls against himand let his

personality and his experience do the rest. They're hungry enough to come, you see; the thing is to keep them

here. A man that lives right here, that has all the earmarks of the West, and is not known to be affiliated with

our Syndicate (you could have rigs to hire, and drive the doubtfuls to the tract)don't you see what an

enormous advantage he'd have? The class I speak of are the suspicious onesthose who are from Missouri.

They're inclined to want salt with what we say about the resources of the country. Even our chemical analysis

of the soil, and weather bureau dope, don't go very far with those hicks. They want to talk with someone who

"Isee," said Andy thoughtfully, and his eyes narrowed a trifle. "On the square, Miss Hallman, what are the

natural advantages out herefor farming? What line of talk do you give those comeons?"

Miss Hallman laughed and made a very pretty gesture with her two ringed hands. "Whatever sounds the best

to them," she said. "If they write and ask about spuds we come back with illustrated folders of potato crops

and statistics of average yields and prices and all that. If it's dairy, we have dairy folders. And so on. It isn't

any fraudthere ARE sections of the country that produce almost anything, from alfalfa to strawberries.

"Sure. But I didn't know there was much tillable land left lying around loose," he ventured to say.

Again Miss Hallman made the pretty gesture, which might mean much or nothing. "There's plenty of land

'lying around loose,' as you call it. How do you know it won't produce, till it has been tried?"

"And since there is the land, our business lies in getting people located on it. The towns and the railroads are

back of us. That is, they look with favor upon bringing settlers into the country. It increases the business of

Andy puckered his eyebrows and looked out of the window upon a great stretch of open, rolling prairie,

clothed sparely in grass that was showing faint green in the hollows, and with no water for milesas he

knew wellexcept for the rivers that hurried through narrow bottom lands guarded by high bluffs that were

"What I can't see," he observed after a minute during which Miss Florence Hallman studied his averted face,

"At Easy street, if they're lucky enough," she told him lightly. "My business is to locate them on the land.

Getting a living off it is THEIR business. And," she added defensively, "people do make a living on ranches

"That's right," he agreed againhe was finding it very pleasant to agree with Florence Grace Hallman.

"Yes, and we encourage our clients to bring out all the young stock they possibly can; young cows and horses

andall that sort of thing. There's quantities of open country around here, that even the most optimistic of

homeseekers would never think of filing on. They can make out, all right, I guess. We certainly urge them

strongly to bring stock with them. It's always been famous as a cattle countrythat's one of our highest

"Yes, if they show a strong enough interestand bank account. I follow up the best prospects and visit them

"Then I don't see what you need of anyone to bring up the drag," Andy told her admiringly. "If you talk to

"Thank you for the implied compliment. But there IS a 'drag,' as you call it. There's going to be a big one,

too, I'm afraidwhen they get out and see this tract we're going to work off this spring." She stopped and

"I'm very much tempted to tell you something I shouldn't tell," she said at length, lowering her voice a little.

Remember, Andy Green was a very good looking man, and his eyes were remarkable for their clear, candid

gaze straight into your own eyes. Even as keen a business woman as Florence Grace Hallman must be

forgiven for being deceived by them." I'm tempted to tell you where this tract is. You may know it."

"You better not, unless you're willing to take a chance," he told her soberly. "If it looks too good, I'm liable to

Miss Hallman laughed and twisted her red lips at him in what might be construed as a flirtatious manner. She

was really quite taken with Andy Green. "I'll take a chance. I don't think you'll jump it. Do you know

anything about Dry Lake, up above Havre, toward Great Fallsand the country out east of there, towards the

The fingers of Andy Green closed into his palms. His eyes, however, continued to look into hers with his

"Wellnow this is a secret; at least we don't want those mossback ranchers in there to get hold of it too

soon, though they couldn't really do anything, since it's all government land and the lease has only just run

out. There's a high tract lying between the Bear Paws anddo you know where the Flying U ranch is?"

"Well, it's right up there on that plateaubench, you call it out here. There are several thousand acres along

in there that we're locating settlers on this spring. We're just waiting for the grass to get nice and green, and

the prairie to get all covered with those blue, blue wind flowers, and the meadow larks to get busy with their

nests, and then we're going to bring them out and" She spread her hands again. It seemed a favorite gesture

grown into a habit, and it surely was more eloquent than words. "These prairies will be a dream of beauty, in

a little while," she said. "I'm to watch for the psychological time to bring out the seekers. And if I could just

interest you, Mr. Green, to the extent of being somewhere around Dry Lake, with a good team that you will

drive for hire and some samples of oats and dryland spuds and stuff that you raised on your claim" She

eyed him sharply for one so endearingly feminine. "Would you do it? There'd be a salary, and besides that a

commission on each doubter you landed. And I'd just love to have you for one of my assistants."

"It sure sounds good," Andy flirted with the proposition, and let his eyes soften appreciably to meet her last

sentence and the tone in which she spoke it. "Do you think I could get by with the right line of talk with the

"I think you could," she said, and in her voice there was a cooing note. "Study up a little on the right dope,

"Could I?" Andy Green knew that cooing note, himself, and one a shade more provocative. "I wonder!"

A man came down the aisle at that moment, gave Andy a keen glance and went on with a cigar between his

"That's what I call hard luck," he grumbled got to see that man before he gets off the trainand the hworst

of it is, I don't know just what station he'll get off at." He sighed again. "I've got a deal on," he told her

confidentially, "that's sure going to keep me humping if I pull loose so as to go in with you. How long did

"Probably two weeks, the way spring is opening out here. I'd want you to get perfectly familiar with our

policy and the details of our scheme before they land. I'd want you to be familiar with that tract and be able to

show up its best points when you take seekers out there. You'd be so much better than one of our own men,

who have the word 'agent' written all over them. You'll come back andtalk it over won't you?" For Andy

"You KNOW it," he declared in a tone of "I won't sleep nights till this thing is settledand settled right." He

gave her a smile that rather dazzled the lady, got up with much reluctance and with a glance that had in it a

certain element of longing went swaying down the aisle after the man who had preceded him.

Andy's business with the man consisted solely in mixing cigarette smoke with cigar smoke and of helping to

stare moodily out of the window. Words there were none, save when Andy was proffered a match and

muttered his thanks. The silent session lasted for half an hour. Then the man got up and went out, and the

breath of Andy Green paused behind his nostrils until he saw that the man went only to the first section in the

car and settled there behind a spread newspaper, invisible to Florence Grace Hallman unless she searched the

After that Andy Green continued to stare out of the window, seeing nothing of the scenery but the flicker of

The Flying U ranch hemmed in by homesteaders from the East, he saw; homesteaders who were being urged

to bring all the stock they could, and turn it loose upon the shrinking range. Homesteaders who would fence

the country into squares, and tear up the grass and sow grain that might never bear a harvest. Homesteaders

who would inevitably grow poorer upon the land that would suck their strength and all their little savings and

turn them loose finally to forage a living where they might. Homesteaders who would ruin the land that

ruined them.... It was not a pleasing picture, but it was more pleasing than the picture he saw of the Flying U

The range that fed the Flying U stock would feed no more and hide their ribs at shipping time. That he knew

too well. Old J. G. Whitmore and Chip would have to sell out. And that was like death; indeed, it IS death of

a sort, when one of the old outfits is wiped out of existence. It had happened beforehappened too often to

make pleasant memories for Andy Green, who could name outfit after outfit that had been forced out of

business by the settling of the range land; who could name dozens of cattle brands once seen upon the range,

Must the Flying U brand disappear also? The good old Flying U, for whose existence the Old Man had fought

and schemed since first was raised the cry that the old range was passing? The Flying U that had become a

part of his life? Andy let his cigarette grow cold; he roused only to swear at the porter who entered with dust

After that, Andy thought of Florence Grace Hallmanand his eyes were not particularly sentimental. There

was a hard line about his mouth also; though Florence Grace Hallman was but a pawn in the game, after all,

and not personally guilty of half the deliberate crimes Andy laid upon her dimpled shoulders. With her it was

pure, coldblooded business, this luring of the landhungry to a land whose fertility was at best

problematical; who would, for a price, turn loose the victims of her greed to devastate what little grazing

The train neared Havre. Andy roused himself, rang for the porter and sent him after his suitcase and coat.

Then he sauntered down the aisle, stopped beside Florence Grace Hallman and smiled down at her with a

"Hard luck, lady," he murmured, leaning toward her. "I'm just simply loaded to the guards with

responsibilities, and here's where I get off. But I'm sure glad I met yuh, and I'll certainly think day and night

about you andall you told me about. I'd like to get in on this land deal. Fact is, I'm going to make it my

business to get in on it. Maybe my way of working won't suit youbut I'll sure work hard for any boss and

"I think that will suit me," Miss Hallman assured him, and smiled unsuspectingly up into his eyes, which she

thought she could read so easily. "When shall I see you again? Could you come to Great Falls in the next ten

"No use. I'll be on the move and a letter wouldn't get me. I'll see yuh later, anyway. I'm bound to. And when I

He was turning away when Miss Hallman put out a soft, jewelled hand. She thought it was diffidence that

made Andy Green hesitate perceptibly before he took it. She thought it was simply a masculine shyness and

confusion that made him clasp her fingers loosely and let them go on the instant. She did not see him rub his

palm down the leg of his dark gray trousers as he walked down the aisle, and if she had she would not have

Andy Green did that again before he stepped off the train. For he felt that he had shaken hands with a traitor

to himself and his outfit, and it went against the grain. That the traitor was a woman, and a charming woman

at that, only intensified his resentment against her. A man can fight a man and keep his self respect; but a man

The KidChip's Kid and the Little Doctor'swas six years old and big for his age. Also he was a member

in good standing of the Happy Family and he insisted upon being called Buck outside the house; within it the

Little Doctor insisted even more strongly that he answer to the many endearing names she had invented for

Being six years old and big for his age, and being called Buck by his friends, the Happy Family, the Kid

decided that he should have a man'ssized horse of his own, to feed and water and ride and proudly call his

"string." Having settled that important point, he began to cast about him for a horse worthy his love and

Therefore, he ran bareheaded up to the blacksmith shop where Daddy Chip was hammering tunefully upon

"Silver's going to be my string, Daddy Chip, and I'm going to feed him myself and ride him myself and

"Yes?" Chip squinted along a dullyglowing iron bar, laid it back upon the anvil and gave it another whack

"Yes, and I'm going to saddle him myself and everything. And I want you to get me some jingling silver

spurs like Mig has got, with chains that hang away down and rattle when you walk." The Kid lifted one small

"Yes?" Chip's eyes twinkled briefly and immediately became intent upon his work.

"Yes, and Doctor Dell has got to let me sleep in the bunkhouse with the rest of the fellers. And I ain't going

to wear a nightie once more! I don't have to, do I, Daddy Chip? Not with lace on it. Happy Jack says I'm a

"I should say not!" Chip testified emphatically, and carried the iron bar to the forge for further heating.

"I'm going on roundup too, tomorrow afternoon." The Kid's conception of time was extremely sketchy and

had no connection whatever with the calendar. "I'm going to keep Silver in the little corral and let him sleep

in the box stall where his leg got well that time he broke it. I 'member when he had a rag tied on it and teased

for sugar. And the Countess has got to quit a kickin' every time I need sugar for my string. Ain't she, Daddy

"I'd tell a man," said Chip inattentively, only half hearing the warlike declaration of his offspringas is the

"I'm going to take a ride now on Silver. I guess I'll ride in to Dry Lake and get the mailand I'm 'pletely outa

"Uhhunhawhat's that? You keep off Silver. He'll kick the daylights out of you, Kid. Where's your hat?

Didn't your mother tell you she'd tie a sunbonnet on you if you didn't keep your hat on? You better hike back

The Kid stared mutinously from the doorway. "You said I could have Silver. What's the use of having a string

if a feller can't ride it? And I CAN ride him, and he don't kick at all. I rode him just now, in the little pasture

to see if I liked his gait better than the others. I rode Banjo first and I wouldn't own a thing like him, on a bet.

Chip's hand dropped from the bellows while he stared hard at the Kid. "Did you go down in the pasture

"I'd TELL a man I did!" the Kid retorted, with a perfect imitation of Chip's manner and tone when crossed.

"I've been trying out all the darned benchest you've gotand there ain't a one I'd give a punched nickel for

but Silver. I'd a rode Shootin' Star, only he wouldn't stand still so I could get onto him. whoever broke him

did a bum job. The horse I break will stand, or I'll know the reason why. Silver'll stand, all right. And I can

guide him pretty well by slapping his neck. You did a pretty fair job when you broke Silver," the Kid

Chip said something which the Kid was not supposed to hear, and sat suddenly down upon the stone rim of

the forge. It had never before occurred to Chip that his Kid was no longer a baby, but a most adventurous

manchild who had lived all his life among men and whose mental development had more than kept pace

with his growing body. He had laughed with the others at the Kid's quaint precociousness of speech and at his

frank worship of range men and range life. He had gone to some trouble to find a tractable Shetland pony the

size of a burro, and had taught the Kid to ride, decorously and fully protected from accident.

He and the Little Doctor had been proud of the Kid's masculine traits as they manifested themselves in the

management of that small specimen of horse flesh. That the Kid should have outgrown so quickly his content

with Stubby seemed much more amazing than it really was. He eyed the Kid doubtfully for a minute, and

"All that don't let you out on the hat question," he said, evading the real issue and laying stress upon the small

matter of obedience, as is the exasperating habit of parents. "You don't see any of the bunch going around

"The bunch goes bareheaded when they get their hats blowed off in the creek," the Kid pointed out unmoved.

"I've seen you lose your hat mor'n once, old timer. That's nothing." He sent Chip a sudden, adorable smile

which proclaimed him the child of his mother and which never failed to thrill Chip secretly,it was so like

the Little Doctor. "You lend me your hat for a while, dad," he said. "She never said what hat I had to wear,

just so it's a hat. Honest to gran'ma, my hat's in the creek and I couldn't poke it out with a stick or anything. It

sailed into the swimmin' hole. I was goin' to go after it," he explained further, "buta snake was swimmin

Chip drew a sharp breath and for one panicky moment considered imperative the hiring of a bodyguard for

"You keep out of the pasture, young man!" His tone was stern to match his perturbation. "And you leave

The Kid did not wait for more. He lifted up his voice and wept in bitterness of spirit. Wept so that one could

hear him a mile. Wept so that J. G. Whitmore reading the Great Falls Tribune on the porch, laid down his

"Dell, you better go see what's wrong," he called afterwards through the open door to the Little Doctor, who

was examining a jar of germ cultures in her "office." "Chances is he's fallen off the stable or

somethingthough he sounds more mad than hurt. If it wasn't for my doggoned back"

The Little Doctor passed him hurriedly. When her manchild wept, it Needed no suggestion from J. G. or

anyone else to send her flying to the rescue. So presently she arrived breathless at the blacksmith shop' and

found Chip within, looking in urgent Need of reinforcements, and the Kid yelling ragefully beside the door

"Shut up now or I'll spank you!" Chip was saying desperately when his wife appeared. "I wish you'd take that

Kid and tie him up, Dell," he added snappishly. "Here he's been riding all the horses in the little pastureand

taking a chance on breaking his neck! And he ain't satisfied with Stubbyhe thinks he's entitled to Silver!"

"Nobecause they can take it out in cussing!" wailed the Kid." I wouldn't cry either, if you'd let me swear

Chip turned his back precipitately and his shoulders were seen to shake. The Little Doctor looked shocked.

"I want Silver for my string!" cried the Kid, artfully transferring his appeal to the higher court. "I can ride

him'cause I have rode him, in the pasture; and he never bucked once or kicked or anything. Doggone it, he

likes to have me ride him! He comes arunnin' up to me when I go down there, and I give him sugar. And

then he waits till I climb on his back, and then we chase the other horses and play ride circle He wants to be

my string!" Something in the feel of his mother's arm around his shoulder whispered hope to the Kid. He

looked up at her with his most endearing smile. "You come down there and I'll show you," he wheedled.

"We're pals. And I guess YOU wouldn't like to have the boys call you Tom Thumb, aridin' Stubby. He's

nothing but a fivecent sample of a horse. Big Medicine says so. II'd rather walk than ride Stubby. And

I'm going on roundup. The boys said I could go when I get a real horse under meand I want Silver. Daddy

Chip said 'yes' I could have him. And now he's Injungiver. Can't I have him, Doctor Dell?"

The grayblue eyes clashed with the brown. "It wouldn't hurt anything to let the poor little tad show us what

"Ohall right," yielded the brown, and their owner threw the iron bar upon the cooling forge and began to

turn down his sleeves. "Why don't you make him wear a hat?" he asked reprovingly. "A little more and he

won't pay any attention to anything you tell him. I'd carry out that sunbonnet bluff, anyway, if I were you."

"Now, Daddy Chip! I 'splained to you how I lost my hat," reproached the Kid, clinging fast to the Little

"Yesand you 'splained that you'd have gone into that deep hole and drownedwith nobody there to pull

you outif you hadn't been scared of a water snake," Chip pointed out relentlessly.

"I wasn't 'zactly scared," amended the Kid gravely. "He was havin' such a good time, and he was swimmin'

"We'll go down and ask Silver what he thinks about it," said the Little Doctor, anxious to make peace

between her two idols. "And we'll see if Daddy Chip can get the hat. You must wear a hat, honey; you know

"I wish dad did," the Kid commented, passing over the hat question. "He said I could have Silver, and keep

him in a box stall and feed him my own self and water him my own self and nobody's to touch him but me."

"Well, if daddy said all thatwe'll have to think it over, and consult Silver and see what he has to say about

Silver, when consulted, professed at least a willingness to own the Kid for his master. He did indeed come

trotting up for sugar; and when he had eaten two grimy lumps from the Kid's grimier hand, he permitted the

Kid to entice him up to a high rock, and stood there while the Kid clambered upon the rock and from there to

his sleek back. Ho even waited until the Kid gathered a handful of silky mane and kicked him on the ribs;

then he started off at a lope, while the Kid risked his balance to cast a triumphant grinthat had a gap in the

"Look how the little devil guides him!" exclaimed Chip surrenderingly. "I guess he's safe enough old Silver

seems to sabe he's got a kid to take care of. He sure would strike a different gait with me! Lord how the time

The Little Doctor sighed a bit. And the Kid, circling grandly on the far side of the little pasture, came

galloping back to hear the verdict. It pleased himthough he was inclined to mistake a great privilege for a

right that must not be denied. He commanded his Daddy Chip to open the gate for him so he could ride Silver

to the stable and put him in the box stall; which was a superfluous kindness, as Chip tried to point out and

The Kid wanted Silver in the box stall, where he could feed him and water him his own self. So into the box

stall Silver reluctantly went, and spent a greater part of the day with his head stuck out through the window,

For several days Chip watched the Kid covertly whenever his small feet strayed stableward; watched and was

full of secret pride at the manner in which the Kid rose to his new responsibility. Never did a "string" receive

the care which Silver got, and never did rider sit more proudly upon his steed than did the Kid sit upon Silver.

There seemed to be practically no riskChip was amazed at the Kid's ability to ride. Besides, Silver was

growing oldfourteen years being considered ripe old age in a horse. He was more given to taking life with

a placid optimism that did not startle easily. He carried the Kid's light weight easily, and he had not lost all

his springiness of muscle. The Little Doctor rode him sometimes, and loved his smooth gallop and his even

temper; now she loved him more when she saw how careful he was of the Kid. She besought the Kid to be

The Kid had owned Silver for a week, and considered that he was qualified to give advice to the Happy

Family, including his Daddy Chip, concerning the proper care of horses. He stood with his hands upon his

hips and his feet far apart, and spat into the corral dust and told Big Medicine that nobody but a pilgrim ever

handled a horse the way Big Medicine was handling Deuce. Whereat Big Medicine gave a bellowing

hawhawhaw and choked it suddenly when he saw that the Kid desired him to take the criticism seriously.

"All right, Buck," he acceded humbly, winking openly at the Native Son. "I'll try m'best, oldtimer. Trouble

"Well, you've got me, now," Buck returned calmly. "I don't ride MY string without brushing the hay out of

his tail. There's a big long hay stuck in your horse's tail." He pointed an accusing finger, and Big Medicine

silently edged close to Douce's rump and very carefully removed the big, long hay. He took a fine chance of

"That all right now, Buck?" Big Medicine wanted to know, when he had accomplished the thing without

"Oh, it'll do," was the frugal praise he got. "I've got to go and feed my string, now. And after a while I'll water

him. You want to feed your horse always before you water him, 'cause eatin' makes him firsty. You 'member

"I'll sure try to, Buck," Big Medicine promised soberly, and watched the Kid go striding away with his hat

tilted at the approved HappyFamily angle and his small hands in his pockets. Big Medicine was thinking of

his own kid, and wondering what he was like, and if he remembered his dad. He waved his hand in cordial

farewell when the Kid looked back and wrinkled his nose in the adorable, LittleDoctor smile he had, and

The Kid made straight for the box stall and told Silver hello over the half door. Silver turned from gazing out

of the window, and came forward expectantly, and the Kid told him to wait a minute and not be so

impatience Then he climbed upon a box, got down a heavy canvas nosebag with leather bottom, and from a

secret receptacle behind the oats box he brought a paper bag of sugar and poured about a teacupful into the

bag. Daddy Chip had impressed upon him what would be the tragic consequences if he fed oats to Silver five

times a day. Silver would die, and it would be the Kid that killed him. Daddy Chip had not said anything

about sugar being fatal, however, and the Countess could not always stand guard over the sugar sack. So

Silver had a sweet taste in his mouth twelve hours of the twentyfour, and was getting a habit of licking his

The Kid had watched the boys adjust nose bags ever since he could toddle. He lugged it into the stall, set it

artfully upon the floor and let Silver thrust in his head to the eyes: then he pulled the strap over Silver's neck

and managed to buckle it very securely. He slapped the sleek neck afterward as his Daddy Chip did, hugged it

"'S good lickums?" he asked gravely, because he had once heard his mother ask Silver that very question, in

At that moment an uproar outside caught his youthful attention. He listened a minute, heard Pink's voice and

a shout of laughter, and ran to see what was going on; for where was excitement, there the Kid was also, as

nearly in the middle of it as he could manage. His going would not have mattered to Silver, had he

remembered to close the halfdoor of the stall behind him; even that would not have mattered, had he not left

The cause of the uproar does not greatly matter, except that the Kid became so rapturously engaged in

watching the foolery of the Happy Family that he forgot all about Silver. And since sugar produces thirst, and

Silver had not smelled water since morning, he licked the last sweet grain from the inside of the nose bag and

then walked out of the stall and the stable and made for the creekand a horse cannot drink with a nose bag

fastened over his face. All he can do, if he succeeds in getting his nose into the water, is to drown himself

Silver reached the creek unseen, sought the deepest hole and tried to drink. Since his nose was covered with

the bag ho could not do so but he fussed and splashed and thrust his head deeper until the water ran into the

bag from the top. He backed and snorted and strangled, and in a minute he fell. Fortunately he struggled a

little, and in doing so he slid backward down the bank so that his head was up the slope a and the water ran

He was a dead horse, to all appearances at least, when Slim spied him and gave a yell to bring every human

being on the ranch at a run. The Kid came with the rest, gave one scream and hid his face in the Little

Doctor's skirts, and trembled so that his mother was more frightened for him than for the horse, and had Chip

carry him to the house where he could not watch the firstaid efforts of the Happy Family.

They did not say anything, much. By their united strength they pulled Silver up the bank so that his limp head

hung downward. Then they began to work over him exactly as if he had been a drowned man, except that

they did not, of course, roll him over a barrel. They moved his legs backward and forward, they kneaded his

paunch, they blew into his nostrils, they felt anxiously for heartbeats. They sweated and gave up the fight,

saying that it was no use. They saw a quiver of the muscles over the chest and redoubled their efforts, telling

one another hopefully that he was alive, all right. They saw finally a quiver of the nostrils as well, and one

after another they laid palms upon his heart, felt there a steady beating and proclaimed the fact profanely.

They pulled him then into a more comfortable position where the sun shone warmly and stood around him in

a crude circle and watched for more pronounced symptoms of recovery, and sent word to the Kid that his

The information was lost upon the Kid, who wept hysterically in his Daddy Chip's arms listen to anything

they told him. He had seen Silver stretched out dead, with his back in the edge of the creek and his feet

sprawled at horrible angles, and the sight obsessed him and forbade comfort. He had killed his string; nothing

was clear in his mind save that, and he screamed with his face hidden from his little world.

The Little Doctor, with anxious eyes and puckered eyebrows, poured something into a teaspoon and helped

Chip fight to get it down the Kid's throat. And the Kid shrieked and struggled and strangled, as is the way of

kids the world over, and tried to spit out the stuff and couldn't, so he screamed the louder and held his breath

until he was purple, and his parents were scared stiff. The Old Man hobbled to the door in the midst of the

uproar and asked them acrimoniously why they didn't make that doggoned Kid stop his howling; and when

Chip, his nerves already strained to the snapping point, told him bluntly to get out and mind his own business,

The Countess rushed in from out of doors and wanted to know what under the shinin' sun was the matter with

that kid, and advised his frantic parents to throw water in his face. Chip told her exactly what he had told the

Old Man, in exactly the same tone; so the Countess retreated, declaring that he wouldn't be let to act that way

The Happy Family heard the disturbance and thought the Kid was being spanked for the accident, which put

every man of them in a fighting humor toward Chip, the Little Doctor, the Old Man and the whole world.

Pink even meditated going up to the White House to lick Chipor at least tell him what he thought of

himand he had plenty of sympathizers; though they advised him halfheartedly not to buy in to any family

It was into this storm centre that Andy Green rode headlong with his own burden of threatened disaster.

Andy Green was a day late in arriving at the Flying U. First he lost time by leaving the train thirty miles short

of the destination marked on his ticket, and when he did resume his journey on the next train, he traveled

eightyfour miles beyond Dry Lake, which landed him in Great Falls in the early morning. There, with the

caution of a criminal carefully avoiding a meeting with Miss Hallman, he spent an hour in poring over a plat

of a certain section of Chouteau County, and in copying certain description of unoccupied land.

He had not slept very well the night before and he looked it. He had cogitated upon the subject of land

speculations and the welfare of his outfit until his head was one great, dull ache; but he stuck to his

determination to do something to block the game of the Homeseekers' Syndicate. Just what that something

would be he had not yet decided. But on general principles it seemed wise to learn all he could concerning the

The day was past when range rights might be defended honorably with rifles and sixshooters and iron

nerved men to use themand I fear that Andy Green sighed because it was so. Give him the "bunch" and

free swing, and he thought the Homeseekers would lose their enthusiasm before even the first hot wind blew

up from the southwest to wither their crops. But such measures were not to be thought of; if they fought at all

they must fight with the law behind themand even Andy's optimism did not see much hope from the law;

none, in fact, since both the law and the moneyed powers were eager for the coming of homebuilders into that

wide land. All up along the Marias they had built their board shacks, and back over the benches as far as one

could see. There was nothing to stop them, everything to make their coming easy.

Andy scowled at the plat he was studying, and admitted to himself that it looked as though the Home Seekers'

Syndicate were going to have things their own way; unlessThere he stuck. There must be some way out;

never in his life had he faced a situation which had been absolutely hopeless; always there had been some

chance to win, if a man only saw it in time and took it. In this case it was the clerk in the office who pointed

Andy looked up at him with the blank stare of preoccupation, and changed expression as the question filtered

into his brain and fitted somehow into the puzzle. He grinned, said maybe he would, folded the sheet of paper

filled with what looked like a meaningless jumble of letters and figures, bought a plat of that township and

begged some government pamphlets, and went out humming a little tune just above a whisper. At the door he

tilted his hat down at an angle over his right eye and took long, eager steps toward an obscure hotel and his

There was no train going east until midnight, and he caught that train. This time he actually got off at Dry

Lake, ate a hurried breakfast, got his horse out of the livery stable and dug up the dust of the lane with rapid

hoofbeats so that he rode all the way to the first hill followed by a rolling, gray cloud that never quite caught

When he rode down the Hog's Back he saw the Happy Family bunched around some object on the

creekbank, and he heard the hysterical screaming of the Kid up in the house, and saw the Old Man limping

excitedly up and down the porch. A man less astute than Andy Green would have known that some thing had

happened. He hurried down the last slope, galloped along the creekbottom, crossed the ford in a couple of

"What's been taking place here?" he demanded curiously, skipping the usual greetings.

"Old Silver looked over the fence into Kingdom Come," Weary enlarged the statement a little. "Tried to take

"What ails the Kid?" Andy demanded, glancing toward the house whence issued a fresh outburst of shrieks.

"Aw, some folks hain't got a lick of sense when it comes to kids," Big Medicine accused gruffly.

"The Kid," Weary explained, "put the nose bag on Silver and then left the stable door open."

"They ain'tspanking him for it, are they?" Andy demanded belligerently. "By gracious, how'd a kid know

"Aw, they don't never spank the Kid!" Slim defended the parents loyally. "By golly, they's been times when I

woulda spanked him, if it'd been me. Countess says it's plumb ridiculous the way that Kid runs over

"Well," said Andy, looking from one to another and reverting to his own worry as he swung down from his

sweating horse, "there's something worse than a spanked kid going to happen to this outfit if you fellows

don't get busy and do something. There's a swarm of dryfarmers coming in on us, with their stock to eat up

"Oh, for the Lord's sake, cut it out!" snapped Pink. "We ain't in the mood for any of your joshes. We've had

"Ah, don't be a damn' fool," Andy snapped back. "There's no josh about it. I've got the whole scheme, just as

they framed it up in Minneapolis. I got to talking with a sheagent on the train, and she gave the whole snap

away; wanted me to go in with her and help land the suckers. I laid low, and made a sneak to the land office

"Get any mail?" Pink interrupted him, in the tone that took no notice whatever of Andy's ill news.

"Time I was hearing from them spurs I sent for." Andy silently went through his pockets and produced what

mail he had gleaned from the postoffice, and led his horse into the shade of the stable and pulled off the

saddle. Every movement betrayed the fact that he was in the grip of unpleasant emotions, but to the Happy

The Happy Family did not notice his silence at the time. But afterwards, when the Kid had stopped crying

and Silver had gotten to his feet and wobbled back to the stable, led by Chip, who explained briefly and

satisfactorily the cause of the uproar at the house, and the boys had started up to their belated dinner, they

began to realize that for a returned traveler Andy Green was not having much to say.

They asked him about his trip, and received brief answers. Had he been anyone else they would have wanted

to know immediately what was eatin' on him; but since it was Andy Green who sat frowning at his toes and

smoking his cigarette as though it had no comfort or flavor, the boldest of them were cautious. For Andy

Green, being a young man of vivid imagination and no conscience whatever, had fooled them too often with

Silence and gloom were not boon companions of Andy Green, at any time. So Weary, having the most

charitable nature of any among them, sighed and yielded the point of silent contention.

"What was all that you started to tell us about the dry farmers, Andy?" he asked indulgently.

"All straight goods. But there's no use talking to you bone heads. You'll set around chewing the rag and

looking wise till it's too late to do anything but holler your heads off." He got up from where he had been

lounging on a bench just outside the mess house and walked away, with his hands thrust deep into his pockets

"Look at the way he slouches alonglike he was loaded to the ears with trouble!" Pink pointed out

"And he fools the fellows that do know him, oftener than anybody else," added the Native Son negligently.

"You're fooled right now if you think that's all acting. That HOMBRE has got something on his mind."

"If you fellows wouldn't say it was a frameup between us two, I'd go after him and find out. But . . ."

"But as it stands, we'd believe Andy Green a whole lot quicker'n what we would you," supplemented Big

"What was it he said about it?" Weary wanted to know. "I wasn't paying much attention, with the Kid yelling

his head off and old Silver gaping like a sick turkey, and all. What was it about them dryfarmers?"

"He said," piped Pink, "that he'd got next to a scheme to bring a big bunch of dryfarmers in on this bench up

here, with stock that they'd turn loose on the range. That's what he said. He claims the agent wanted him to go

"Mamma!" Weary held a match poised midway between his thigh and his cigarette while he stared at Pink.

"That would be some mixupif it was to happen." His sunny blue eyesthat were getting little crow'sfeet

at their cornersturned to look after the departing Andy. "Where's the josh?" he questioned the group.

"The josh is, that he'd like to see us all het up over it, and makin' wartalks and laying for the pilgrims some

dark night with our sixguns, most likely," retorted Pink, who happened to be in a bad humor because in ten

minutes he was due at a line of postholes that divided the big pasture into two unequal parts. "He can't

agitate me over anybody's troubles but my own. Happy, I'll help Bud stretch wire this afternoon if you'll tamp

"Aw, you stick to your own job! How was it when I wanted you to help pull the old wire off that hill fence

and git it ready to string down here? You wasn't crazy about workin' with bob wire then, I noticed. You

"What I said wasn't a commencement to what I'll say again," Pink began truculently, and so the subject turned

Weary smoked meditatively while they wrangled, and when the group broke up for the afternoon's work he

went unobtrusively in search of Andy. He was not quite easy in his mind concerning the alleged joke. He had

looked full at the possibilities of the situationgranting Andy had told the truth, as he sometimes didand

the possibilities had not pleased him. He found Andy morosely replacing some broken strands in his cinch,

Andy looked up from his work and scowled. "This ain't any joke with me," he stated grimly. "It's something

that's going to put the Flying U out of business if it ain't stopped before it gets started. I've been worrying my

head of[, ever since day before yesterday; I ain't in the humor to take anything off those imitation joshers up

"Well, but how do you figure it can be stopped?" Weary sat soberly down on the oats box and absently

watched Andy's expert fingers while they knotted the heavy cotton cord through the cinchring. "We can't

Andy dropped the cinch and stood up, pushing back his hat and then pulling it forward into place with the

gesture he used when he was very much in earnest. "No, we can't. But if the bunch is game for it there's a

way to block their playand the law does all our fighting for us. We don't have to yeep. It's like this, Weary

counting Chip and the Little Doctor and the Countess there's eleven of us that can use our rights up here on

the bench. I've got it all figured out. If we can get Irish and Jack Bates to come back and help us out, there's

thirteen of us. And we can take homesteads along the creeks and deserts back on the bench, andsay, do you

know how much land we can corral, the bunch of us? Four thousand acres and if we take our claims right,

that's going to mean that we get a dead immortal cinch on all the bench land that's worth locating, around

here, and we'll have the creeks, and also we'll have the breaks corralled for our own stock.

"I've gone over the platI brought a copy to show you fellows what we can do. And by taking up our claims

right, we keep a deadline from the Bear Paws to the Flying U. Now the Old Man owns Denson's ranch, all

south uh here is fairly safeunless they come in between his south line and the breaks; and there ain't room

for more than two or three claims there. Maybe we can get some of the boys to grab what there is, and string

"That's the only way on earth we can save what little feed there is left. This way, we get the land ourselves

and hold it, so there don't any outside stock come in on us. If Florence Grace Hallman and her bunch lands

any settlers here, they'll be between us and Dry Lake; and they're dead welcome to squat on them dry

pinnaclesso long as we keep their stock from crossing our claims to get into the breaks. Savvy the burro?"

"Yessbut how'd yuh KNOW they're going to do all this? Mamma! I don't want to turn dryfarmer if I

Andy's face clouded. "That's just what'll block the game, I'm afraid. I don't want to, either. None of the boys'll

want to. It'll mean going up there and baching, six or seven months of the year, by our high lonesomes. We'll

have to fulfill the requirements, if we start inbecause them pilgrims'll be standing around like dogs at a

picnic, waiting for something to drop so they can grab it and run. It ain't going to be any snap.

"And there's another thing bothers me, Weary. It's going to be one peach of a job to make the boys believe it

hard enough to make their entries in time." Andy grinned wrily. "By gracious, this is where I could see a

"You could, all right," Weary agreed sympathetically. "It's going to strain our swallowers to get all that down,

and that's a fact. You ought to have some proof, if you want the boys to grab it, Andy." His face sobered.

"Who is this Florence person? If you could get some kinda proofa letter, say . . ."

"Easiest thing in the world!" Andy brightened at the suggestion. "She's stopping at the Park, in Great Falls,

and she wanted me to come up or write. Anybody going to town right away? I'll send that foxy dame a letter

Weary scrutinized him sharply and puckered his lips into a doubtful expression. "I wish I knew for a fact

whether all this is straight goods, Andy," he "said pensively. "Chances are you're just stringing me. But if you

are, old boy, I'm going to take it outa your hideand don't you forget that." He grinned at his own mental

"By gracious, I wish it was a josh! But it ain't, darn it. In about two weeks or so you'll all see the point of this

joke but whether the joke's on us or on the homeseekers' Syndicate depends on you fellows. Lord! I wish

Weary sat knocking his heels rhythmically against the side of the box while he thought the matter over from

start to hypothetical finish and back again. Meanwhile Andy Green went on with his work and scowled over

his wellearned reputation that hampered him now just when he needed the confidence of his fellows in order

to save their beloved Flying U from slow annihilation. Perhaps his mental suffering could not rightly be

called remorse, but a poignant regret it most certainly was, and a sense of complete bafflement which came

"Even if she wrote me a letter, the boys'd call it a frameup just the same. They'd say I had it fixed before I

"I was thinking of that, myself. What's the matter with getting Chip to go up with you? Couldn't you ring him

Andy stood up and looked at Weary a minute. "How'd I make Chip believe me enough to GO?" he countered.

"Darn it, everything looked all smooth sailing till I got back here to the ranch and the boys come at me with

that same old smart aleck brand uh talk. I kinda forgot how I've lied to 'em and fooled 'em right along till

they duck every time I open my face." His eyes were too full of trouble to encourage levity in his listener.

"You remember that time the boys' rode off and left me laying out here on the prairie with my leg broke?" he

went on dismally. "I'd rather have that happen to me a dozen times than see 'em set back and give me the

laugh now, just whenOh, hell!" He dropped the finished cinch and walked moodily to the door. "Weary, if

them dryfarmers come flockin' in on us while this bunch stands around callin' me a liar, I" He did not

attempt to finish the sentence; but Weary, staring curiously at Andy's profile, saw a quivering of the muscles

around his lips and felt a responsive thrill of sympathy and belief that rose above his long training in caution.

Spite of past experience he believed, at that moment, every word which Andy Green had uttered upon the

subject of the proposed immigration. He was about to tell Andy so, when Chip walked unexpectedly out of

Silver's stall and glanced from Weary to Andy standing still in the doorway. Weary looked at him

enquiringly; for Chip must have heard every word they said, and if Chip believed it

"Have you got that plat with you, Andy?" Chip asked tersely and with never a doubt in his tone.

Andy swung toward him like a prisoner who has just heard a jury return a verdict of not guilty to the judge.

"I've got it, yes," he answered simply, with only his voice betraying the emotions he feltand his eye?

Andy felt in his inside coat pocket, drew out a thin, folded map of that particular part of the county with all

the government land marked upon it, and handed it to Chip without a word. He singled out a couple of

pamphlets from a bunch of old letters such as men are in the habit of carrying upon their persons, and gave

"That's a copy of the homestead and desert laws," he said. "I guess you heard me telling Weary what kinda

deal we're up against, here. Better not say anything to the Old Man till you have to; no use worrying himhe

can't do nothing." It was amazing, the change that had come over Andy's face and manner since Chip first

"If you want to go in on this deal," he said quizzically, "maybe it'll be just as well if you talk to the bunch

yourself about it, Chip. You ain't any tin, angel, but I'm willing to admit the boys'll believe you; a whole lot

"Yesand they'll probably hand me a bunch of pity for getting stung by you," Chip retorted. "I'll take a

chance, anywaybut the Lord help you, Andy if you can't produce proof when the time comes."

Say, Andy, where's them dryfarmers?" Big Medicine inquired at the top of his voice when the Happy

"Oh, they're trying to make up their minds whether to bring the old fannin'mill along or sell it and buy new

when they get here," Andy informed him imperturbably. "The womenfolks are busy going through their rag

bags, cutting the buttons off all the pants that ain't worth patching no more, and getting father's socks all

The Happy Family snickered appreciatively; this was more like the Andy Green with whom they were

"What's daughter doin', about now?" asked Cal Emmett, fixing his round, babyblue stare upon Andy.

"Daughter? Why, daughter's leaning over the gate telling him she wouldn't never LOOK at one of them wild

cowboysthe idea! She's heard all about 'em, and they're too rough and rude for HER. And she's promising

to write every day, and giving him a lock of hair to keep in the back of his dollar watch. Pass the cane Juice,

"Yeahall right for daughter. If she's a good looker we'll see if she don't change her verdict about cowboys."

"Well, that depends; I know I ain't any LADY bronchohey, cut it out!" This last because of half a biscuit

aimed accurately at the middle of his face. If you want to know why, search out the history of a certain War

"Wher'e they going to live when they git here?" asked Happy Jack, reverting to the subject of dry farmers.

"Close enough so you can holler from here to their back door, my boyif they have their say about it," Andy

assured him cheerfully. Andy felt that he could afford to be facetious now that he had Chip and Weary on his

"Aw, gwan! I betche there ain't a word of truth in all that scarey talk," Happy Jack fleered heavily.

"Name your bet. I'll take it." Andy filled his mouth with hot biscuit and stirred up the sugar in his coffee like

"Aw, you ain't going to git me that way agin," Happy Jack declared. "They's some ketch to it."

"There sure is, Happy. The biggest ketch you ever seen in your life. It's ketch the Flying U outfit and squeeze

the life out of it; that's the ketch." Andy's tone had in it no banter, but considerable earnestness. For, though

Chip would no doubt convince the boys that the danger was very real, there was a small matter of personal

pride to urge Andy into trying to convince, them himself, without aid from Chip or any one else.

"Well, by golly, I'd like to see anybody try that there scheme," blurted Slim. "That's allI'd just like to see

"Oh, you'll see it, all rightand you won't have to wait long, either. Just set around on your haunches a

couple of weeks or so. That's all you'll have to do, Slim; you'll see it tried, fast enough."

Pink eyed him with a wide, purple glance. "You'd like to make us fall for that, wouldn't you?" he challenged

Andy gave him a level look. "No, I wouldn't. I'd like to put one over on you smart gazabos that think you

know it all; but I don't want to bad enough to see the Flying U go outa business just so I could holler

"Well," put in the Native Son with his easy drawl, "I'm coming to the centre with my ante, just for the sake of

seeing the cards turned. Deal 'em out, amigo; state your case once more, so we can take a good, square look

"Yeahgo ahead and tell us what's bustin' the buttons off your vest," Cal Emmett invited.

"What's the use?" Andy argued. "You'd all just raise up on your hind legs and holler your heads off. You

wouldn't DO anything about itnot if you knew it was the truth!" This, of course, was pure guile upon his

"Oh, wouldn't we? I guess, by golly, we'd do as much for the outfit as what you wouldand a hull lot more

"Maybe you would, if you could take it out in talking," snorted Andy. "My chips are in. I've got

threehundredand twenty acres picked out, up here, and I'm going to file on 'em before these damned

nesters get off the train. Uh course, that won't be more'n a flea bitebut I can make it interesting for my next

door neighbors, anyway; and every flea bite helps to keep a dog moving, yuh know."

"I'll go along and use my rights," Weary offered suddenly and seriously. "That'll make one section they won't

Pink gave him a startled look across the table. "You ain't going to grab it, are yuh?" he demanded

"I sure amif it's threehundredandtwenty acres of land you mean. If I don't, somebody else will." He

sighed humorously. "Next summer you'll see me hoeing spuds, most likelyif the law says I GOT to."

"Hawhawhaww!" laughed Big Medicine suddenly. "It'd sure be worth the price, jest to ride up and watch

you two marks down on all fours weedin' onions." He laughed again with his big, bulllike bellow.

"We don't have to do anything like that if we don't want to," put in Andy Green calmly. "I've been reading up

on the law. There's one little joker in it I've got by heart. It says that homestead land can be used for grazing

purposes if it's more valuable for pasture than for crops, and that actual grazing will be accepted instead of

"I betche you can't prove that," Happy lack interrupted him. "I never heard of that before"

"The world's plumb full of things you never heard of, Happy," Andy told him witheringly. "I gave Chip my

copy of the homestead laws, and a plat of the land up here; soon as he hands 'em back I can show you in cold

"That's what makes it look good to me, just on general principles," he went on, his honest, gray eyes taking in

the circle of attentive faces. "If the bunch of us could pool our interests and use what rights we got, we can

corral about four thousand acresand we can head off outsiders from grazing in the Badlands, if we take our

land right. We've been overlooking a bet, and don't you forget it. We've been fooling around, just putting in

our time and drawing wages, when we could be owning our own grazing land by now and shipping our own

"Acourse, I ain't crazy about turning nester, myselfbut we've let things slide till we've got to come

through or get outa the game. It's a fact, boys, about them dryfarmers coming in on us. That Minneapolis

bunch that the blonde lady works for is sending out a colony of farmers to take up this land between here and

the Bear Paws. The lady tipped her hand, not knowing where I ranged and thinking I wouldn't be interested in

anything but her. She's a real nice lady, too, and goodlookingbut a grafter to her last eye winker. And she

hit too close home to suit me, when she named the place where they're going to dump their colony."

"Where does the graft come in?" inquired Pink cautiously. "The farmers get the land, don't they?"

"Sure, they get the land. And they pungle up a goodsized fee to Florence Grace Hallman and her outfit, for

locating 'em. Also there's side money in it, near as I can find out. They skin the farmers somehow on the fare

out here. That's their business, according to the lady. They prowl around through the government plats till

they spot a few thousand acres of land in a chunk; they take a look at it, maybe, and then they boom it like

hell, and get them eastern marks hookedthem with money, the lady said. Then they ship a bunch out here,

locate 'em on the land and leave it up to THEM, whether they scratch a living or not. She said they urge the

rubes to bring all the stock they can, because there's plenty of range left. She says they play that up big. You

Pink eyed him attentively, and suddenly his dimples stood deep. "All right, I'm It," he surrendered.

"It'd be a sin not to fall for a yarn like that, Andy. I expect you made it all up outa your own head, but that's

all right. It's a pleasure to be fooled by a genius like you. I'll go raising turnips and cabbages myself."

By golly, you couldn't raise nothing but hell up on that dry bench," Slim observed ponderously. "There ain't

"Well, by golly, if you ain't just lyin' to hear yourself, that there graftin' bunch had oughta be strung up!"

"Sure, they had. Nobody's going to argue about that. But seeing we can't do that, the next best thing is to beat

them to it. If they came out here with their herd of pilgrims and found the land all took up" Andy smiled

"Yeahit would, all right. If that talk Andy's been giving us is straight, about grazing the land instead uh

"You can mighty quick find out," Andy retorted. "Go up and ask Chip for them land laws, and that plat. And

ask him what he thinks about the deal. You don't have to take my word for it." Andy grinned virtuously and

pushed back his chair. From their faces, and the remarks they had made, he felt very confident of the ultimate

decision. "What about you, Patsy?" he asked suddenly, turning to the bulky, bald German cook who was

thumping bread dough in a far corner. "You got any homestead or desert rights you ain't used?"

"Py cosh, I got all der rights dere iss," Patsy returned querulously. "I got more rights as you shmartys. I got

soldier's rights mit fightin'. Und py cosh, I use him too if dem fellers coom by us mit der dry farms alreatty!"

"Well, you sonofagun!" Andy smote him elatedly upon a fat shoulder. "What do you know about old

Patsy for a dead game sport? By gracious, that makes another three hundred and twenty to the good. Gee, it's

lucky this bunch has gone along turning up their noses at nesters and thinkin' they couldn't be real punchers

and hold down claims too. If any of us had had sense enough to grab a piece of land and settle down to raise

families, we'd be right up against it now. We'd have to set back and watch a bunch of downeast rubes light

"As it is, we'll all turn nesters for the good of the cause!" finished Pink somewhat cynically, getting up and

"Aw, I betche they's some ketch to it!" gloomed Happy Jack. "I betche Andy jest wants to see us takin' up

claims on that dry bench, and then set back and laugh at us fer bitin' on his josh."

"Well, you'll have the claims, won't you. And if you hang onto them there'll be money in the deal some day.

Why, darn your bombproof skull, can't you get it into your system that all this country's bound to settle up?"

Andy's eyes snapped angrily. "Can't you see the difference between us owning the land between here and the

mountains, and a bunch of outsiders that'll cut it all up into little fields and try to farm it. If you can't see that,

you better go hack a hole in your head with an axe, so an idea can squeeze in now and then when you ain't

"Well, I betche there ain't no colony comin' to settle that there bench," Happy Jack persisted stubbornly.

"Yes there is, by cripes!" trumpeted Big Medicine behind him. "Yes there is! And that there colony is goin' to

be us, and don't you forget it. It's time I was doin' somethin' fer that there boy uh mine, by cripes! And soon

as we git that fence strung I'm goin' to hit the trail fer the nearest land office. Honest to grandma, if Andy's

lyin' it's goin' to be the prof't'blest lie HE ever told, er anybody else. I don't care a cuss about whether them

dryfarmers is fixin' to light here or not. That there landpool looks good to ME, and I'm comin' in on it with

Big Medicine was nothing less than a human land slide when once he threw himself into anything, be it a

fight or a frolic. Now ho blocked the way to the door with his broad shoulders and his big bellow and his

enthusiasm, and his pale, froglike eyes fixed their protruding stare accusingly upon the reluctant ones.

"Cal, you git up there and git that plat and bring it here," he ordered. "And fer criminy sakes git that table

cleared off, Patsy, so's't we kin have a place to lay it! What's eatin' on you fellers, standin' around like girls to

a party, waitin' fer somebody to come up and ast you to dance! Ain't you got head enough to see what a cinch

we got, if we only got sense enough to play it! Honest to grandma you make me sick to look at yuh! Down in

Conconino County the boys wouldn't stand back and wait to be purtypleased into a thing like this. You're so

scared Andy's got a josh covered up somewheres, you wouldn't take a drink uh whisky if he ast yuh up to the

bar! You'd pass up a Chris'mas turkey, by cripes, if yuh seen Andy washin' his face and lookin' hungry!

What further reproach he would have heaped upon them was interrupted by Chip, who opened the door just

then and bumped Big Medicine in the back. In his hand Chip carried the land plat and the pamphlets, and in

his keen, brown eyes he carried the light of battle for his outfit. The eyes of Andy Green sent bright glances

from him to Big Medicine, and on to the others. He was too wise then to twit those others with their unbelief.

His wisdom went farther than that; for he remained very much in the background of the conversation and

contented himself with answering, briefly and truthfully, the questions they put to him about Florence Grace

Chip spread the plat upon an end of the table hastily and effectually cleared by a sweep of Big Medicine's

arm, and the Happy Family crowded close to stare down at the checkerboard picture of their own familiar

bench land. They did not doubt, nownor did they Hang back reluctantly. Instead they followed eagerly the

trail Chip's cigaretteyellowed finger took across the map, and they listened intently to what he said about

The clause about grazing the land, he said, simplified matters a whole lot. It was a cinch you couldn't turn

loose and dryfarm that land and have even a fair chance of reaping a harvest. But as grazing land they could

hold all the land along One Man Creekand that was a lot. And the land lying back of that, and higher up

toward the foothills, they could take as desert. And he maintained that Andy had been right in his judgment:

If they all went into it and pulled together they could stretch a line of claims that would protect the Badland

"I wouldn't ask you fellows to go into this," said Chip, straightening from his stooping over the map and

looking from one sober face to another, "just to help the outfit. But it'll be a good thing for you boys. It'll give

you a footholdsomething better than wages, if you stay with your claims and prove up. Of course, I can't

say anything about us buying out your claimsthat's fraud, according to Hoyle; but you ain't

simplemindedyou know your land won't be begging for a buyer, in case you should ever want to sell.

"There's another thing. This will not only head off the dry farmers from overstocking what little range is

leftit'll make a deadline for sheep, too. We've been letting 'em graze back and forth on the bench back

here beyond our leased land, and not saying much, so long as they didn't crowd up too close, and kept going.

With all our claims under fence, do you realize what that'll mean for the grass?"

"Josephine! There's feed for considerable stock, right over there on our claims, to say nothing of what we'll

"I'd tell a man! And if we get water on the desert claims" Chip grinned down at him. "See what we've been

passing up, all this time. We've had some of it leased, of coursebut that can't be done again. There's been

some wirepulling, and because we ain't politicians we got turned down when the Old Man wanted to renew

the lease. I can see now why it was, maybe. This dryfarm business had something to do with it, if you ask

"Aw, jest because he happened to tell the truth once, don't cut no ice," Happy Jack maintained with sufficient

"Of course, it won't be any goldmine," Chip added dispassionately. "But it's worth picking up, all right; and

if it'll keep out a bunch of tightfisted settlers that don't give a darn for anything but what's inside their own

"Say, my dad's a farmer," Pink declared defiantly in his soft treble." And while I think of it, them eastern

farmers ain't so worsenot the brand I've seen, anyway. They're narrow, maybebut they're human. Damn

it, you fellows have got to quit talking about 'em as if they were blackleg stock or grasshoppers or

"We ain't saying nothing aginst farmers AS farmers, Little One" Big Medicine explained forebearingly. "As

men, and as women, and as kids, they're mighty nice folks. My folks have got an eightyacre farm in

Wisconsin," he confessed unexpectedly, "and I think a pile of 'em. But if they was to come out here, trying to

horn in on our range, I'd lead 'em gently to the railroad, by cripes, and tell 'em goodbye so's't they'd know I

meant it! Can't yuh see the difference?" he bawled, goggling at Pink with misleading savageness in his ugly

"Oh, I see," Pink admitted mildly. "I only just wanted to remind you fellows that I don't mean anything

personal and I don't want you to. Say, what about One Man Coulee?" he asked suddenly. "That's marked

"Sure, you did!" Chip grinned at him wisely, "because we used it for a line camp, you thought we owned a

"Say, by golly, I'll file on that, then," Slim declared selfishly. For One Man coulee, although a place of

gruesome history, was also desirable for one or two reasons. There was wood, for instance, and water, and a

cabin that was habitable. There was also a fence on the place, a corral and a small stable. "If Happy's ghost

"No, sir! You ain't going to have One Man coulee unless Andy, here, says he don't want it!" shouted Big

Medicine. "I leave it to Chip if Andy hadn't oughta have first pick. He's the feller that's put us onto this, by

Chip did not need to sanction that assertion. The whole Happy Family agreed unanimously that it should be

Till midnight and after, they bent heads over the plat and made plans for the future and took no thought

whatever of the difficulties that might lie before them. For the coming colony they had no pity, and for the

So Andy Green, having seen his stratagem well on the way to success, and feeling once more the wellearned

confidence of his fellows, slept soundly that night in his own bed, serenely sure of the future.

Letters went speeding to Irish and Jack Bates, absent members of the Happy Family of the Flying U; letters

that explained the situation with profane completeness, set forth briefly the plan of the proposed pool, and

which importuned them to come home or make haste to the nearest landoffice and file upon certain

quartersections therein minutely described. Those men who would be easiest believed wrote and signed the

letters, and certain others added characteristic postscripts best calculated to bring results.

After that, the Happy Family debated upon the boldness of going in a body to Great Falls to file upon their

claims, or the caution of proceeding instead to Glasgow where the next nearest landoffice might be found.

Slim and Happy Jack favored caution and Glasgow. The others sneered at their timidity, as they were wont to

"Yuh think Florence Grace Hallman is going to stand guard with a sixgun?" Andy challenged at last." She's

tied up till her colony gets there. She can't file on all that land herself, can she?" He smiled reminiscently.

"The lady asked me to come up to the Falls and see her," he said softly. "I'm going. The rest of you can take

the same train, I reckonshe won't stop you from it, and I won't. And who's to stop you from filing? The

"Well, by golly, the sooner we go the better," Slim declared fussily. "That fencin' kin wait. We gotta go and

"Listen here, hombres," called the Native Son from the window, where he had been studying the

wellthumbed pamphlet containing the homestead law. "If we want to play dead safe on this, we all better

quit the outfit before we go. Call for our time. I don't like the way some of this stuff reads."

"I don't like the way none of it reads," grumbled Happy Jack. "I betche we can't make it go; they's some ketch

"Well, pull out of the game, then!" snapped Andy Green, whose nerves were beginning to feel the strain put

"I ain't in it yet," said Happy Jack sourly, and banged the door shut upon his departure.

Andy scowled and returned to studying the map. Finally he reached for his hat and gloves in the manner of

"Well, the rest of you can do as you darned please," he delivered his ultimatum from the doorway. "I'm going

to catch up my horse, draw a month's wages and hit the trail. I can catch the evening train to the Falls, easy,

"Ain't in any rush, are yuh?" Pink inquired facetiously. "If I had my dinner settled and this cigarette smoked, I

"Hold on, boys, and listen to this," the Native Son called out imperatively. "I think we better get a move on,

too; but we want to get a fair running start, and not fall over this hump. Listen here! We've got to swear that it

is not for the benefit of any other person, persons or corporation, and so on; and farther along it says we must

not act in collusion with any person, persons or corporation, to give them the benefit of the land. There's more

"Well, who's acting in collusion? What's collusion mean anyhow?" Slim demanded aggressively.

"It means what we're aiming to doif anybody could prove it on us," explained the Native Son. "My oldest

brother's a lawyer, and I caught some of it from him. And my expert, legal advice is this: to get into a row

with the Old Man, maybeanyway, quit him cold, so we get our time. We must let that fact percolate the

alleged brains of Dry Lake and vicinityand if we give any reason for taking claims right under the nose of

the Flying U, why, we're doing it to spite the Old Man. Sabe? Otherwise we're going to have trouble unless

The Happy Family had learned to respect the opinions of the Native Son, whose mixture of Irish blood with

good Castilian may have had something to do with his astuteness. Once, as you may have heard, the Native

Son even scored in a battle of wits with Andy Green, and scored heavily. And he had helped Andy pull the

Flying U out of an extremely ticklish situation, by his keen wit saving the outfit much trouble and money.

Wherefore they heeded now his warning to the extent of unsmilingly discussing the obstacle he had pointed

out to them. One after another they read the paragraph which they had before passed over too hastily, and

sensed the possibilities of its construction. Afterward they went into serious consultation as to ways and

means, calling Happy Jack back so that he might understand thoroughly what must be done. For the Happy

Family was nothing if not thorough, and their partisanship that had been growing insensibly stronger through

the years was roused as it had not been since Dunk Whittaker drove sheep in upon the Flying U.

The Old Man, having eaten a slice of roast pork the size of his two hands, in defiance of his sister's

professional prohibition of the indulgence, was sitting on the sunny side of the porch trying to ignore the first

uneasy symptoms of indigestion. The Little Doctor had taken his pipe away from him that morning, and had

badgered him into taking a certain decoction whose taste lingered bitterly. The paper he was reading was four

days old and he disagreed with its political policy, and there was no telling when anyone would have time to

go in after the mail and his favorite paper. Ranch work was growing heavier each year in proportion to the

lightening of range work. He was going to sow another twenty acres of alfalfa, and to do that he must cut

down the size of his pasturesomething that always went against the grain. He had not been able to renew

his lease of government land,which also went against the grain. And the Kid, like the last affliction which

the Lord sent unto JobI've forgotten whether that was boils or the butchery of his offspringcame loping

down the length of the porch and kicked the Old Man's bunion with a stubby boottoe.

Thus was born the psychological moment when the treachery of the Happy Family would cut deepest.

They came, bunched and talking lowvoiced together with hatbrims hiding shamed eyes, a typetrue group

of workers bearing a grievance. Not a man was absentthe Happy Family saw to that! Even Patsy, big and

sloppy and bearing with him stale kitchen odors, limped stolidly in the rear beside Slim, who looked guilty as

The Old Man, bent headforemost over his growing paunch that he might caress his outraged bunion, glared

at them with belligerent curiosity from under his graying eyebrows. The group came on and stopped short at

the stepsand I don't suppose the Happy Family will ever look such sneaks again whatever crime they may

commit. The Old Man straightened with a grunt of pain because of his lame back, and waited. Which made it

all the harder for the Happy Family, especially for Andy Green who had been chosen spokesmanfor his

"We'd like our time," blurted Andy after an unpleasant silence, and fixed his eyes frigidly upon the lowest

"Oh, you would, hunh? The whole bunch of yuh?" The Old Man eyed them incredulously.

The Old Man's jaw dropped a little, but his eyes didn't waver from their Hangdog faces. "Well, I never

coaxed a man to stay yet," he stated grimly, "and I'm gittin' too old in the business to start coaxin' now. Dell!"

He turned stiffly in his chair so that he faced the open door. "Bring me my time and check books outa the

A gray hardness came slowly to the Old Man's face while he waited, his seamed hands gripping the padded

arms of his chair. A tightness pulled at his lips behind the grizzled whiskers. It never occurred to him now

that the Happy Family might be perpetrating one of their jokes. He had looked at their faces, you see. They

meant to quit himquit him cold just as spring work was beginning. They were ashamed of themselves, of

course; they had a right to be ashamed, he thought bitterly. It hurthurt so that he would have died before he

would ask for excuse, reason, grievance, explanationfor whatever motive impelled them. So he waited, and

he gripped the arms of his chair, and he clamped his mouth shut and did not speak a word.

The Happy Family had expected him to swear at them stormily; to accuse them of vile things; to call them

such names as his memory could seize upon or his ingenuity invent. They had been careful to prepare a list of

plausible reasons for leaving then. They had first invented a gold rumor that they hoped would sound

convincing, but Andy had insisted upon telling him straightforwardly that they did not favor fence building

and ditchdigging and such backbreaking toil; that they were range men and they demanded range work or

none; that if they must dig ditches and build fences and perform like menial tasks, they preferred doing it for

themselves. "That," said Andy, "makes us out such dirty, lowdown sons ofguns we'd have to climb a tree

to look a snake in the eye, but it's got the grain of truth that'll make it go down. We DON'T love this farming

graft, and the Old Man knows it. He's heard us kicking often enough. That's where it'll git him. He'll believe

this last stretch of fence is what made us throw him down, and he'll be so mad he'll cuss us out till the

neighbors'll think the smoke's a prairie fire. We'll get our time, all right' and the things he'll say will likely

make us so hot we can all talk convincing when we hit town. Keep a stiff upper lip, boys. We got to do it, and

The theory was good, and revealed a knowledge of human nature that made one cease to wonder why Andy

was a prince of convincing liars. The theory was goodnothing in the world was the matter with it, except

that in this particular instance it did not work. The Old Man did not ask for their reasons, excuses or

explanations. Neither did he say anything or do anything to make them mad. He just sat there, with his face

The Little Doctor appeared with the required books and a fountain pen; saw the Happy Family standing there

like condemned men at the steps; saw the Old Man's face, and trembled wideeyed upon the verge of speech.

Then she decided that this was no time for questioning and hurried, still wide of eye, away from sight of

them. The Happy Family did not look at one anotherthey looked chiefly at the wall of the house.

The Old Man reckoned the wages due each one, and wrote a check for the exact amount. And he spoke no

word that did not intimately concern the matter in hand. He still had that gray, hard look in his face that froze

whatever explanation they would otherwise have volunteered. And when he handed the last manwho was

Patsyhis check, he got up stiffly and turned his back on them, and went inside and closed the door while

At the bunkhouse, whence they walked silently, Slim turned suddenly upon their leader. His red face had

"If that there land business falls down anywhere because you lied to us, Andy Green' I'll kill you fer this" he

"If it Does, Slim, I'll stand and let yuh shoot me as full of lead as you like," Andy promised, in much the same

tone. Then he strove to shake off the spell of the Old Man's stricken silence. "Buck up, boys. He'll thank us

"Well, it seems to me," sighed Weary lugubriously, "we mighta managed it without hitting the Old Man a

"How'n hell did I know he'd take it the way he did?" Andy questioned sharply, and began throwing his

personal belongings into his "warbag" as if he had a grudge against his own clothes.

"Aw, looks to me like he was glad to git shet of us!" grumbled Happy Jack. "I betche he's more tickled than

It was an exceedingly unhappy Family that rode up the Hog's Back upon their private mounts, and away from

the Flying U; in spite of Chip's assurance that he would tell the Old Man all about it as soon as he could, it

was an illhumored Family that rode into Dry Lake and cashed their several checks at the desk of the General

store which also did an informal banking business, and afterwards took the train for Great Falls.

The news spread through the town that old J. G. Whitmore had fired the Happy Family in a bunch for some

unforgivable crime against the peace and dignity of the outfit, and that the boys were hatching up some

scheme to get even. From the gossip that was rolled relishfully upon the tongues of the Dry Lake scandal

If you would see northern Montana at its most beautiful best, you should see it in midMay when the

groundswallows are nesting and the meadow larks are puffing their throats and singing of their sweet

ecstasy with life; when curlews go sailing low over the green, grassy billows, peering and perking with long

bills thrust rapierwise through the sunny stillness, and calling shrilly, "CorrECK, correck!" which, I

take it, is simply their opinion of world and weather given tersely in plain English. You should see the high

prairies then, when all the world is ashimmer with green velvet brocaded brightly in blue and pink and

yellow flowerpatterns; when the heat waves go quivering up to meet the sun, so that the far horizons wave

like painted drop scenes stirred by a breeze; when a hypnotic spell of peace and bright promises is woven

over the rangelandyou should see it then, if you would love it with a sweet unreason that will last you

The homeseekers' Syndicate, as represented by Florence Grace Hallmanshe of the wheatyellow hair and

the tempting red lips and the narrow, calculating eyes and stubborn chindid well to wait for the spell of the

prairies when the wind flowers and the lupines blue the hillsides and the new grass paints green the hollows.

There is in us all a deeprooted instinct to create, and never is that instinct so nearly dominant as in the spring

when the grass and the flowers and the little, new leaves and the birds all sing the song of Creation together.

Then is when casehardened city dwellers study the bright array of seedpackets in the stores, and meditate

rashly upon the possibilities of backyard gardening. Then is when the seasoned countrydwellers walk over

their farms in the sunset and plan largely for harvest time. Then is when the salaried folk read avidly the

realestate advertisements, and pore optimistically over folders and dream of chicken ranches and fruit

ranches and the like. Surely, then, the homeseekers' Syndicate planned well the date of their excursion into

the land of large promise (and problematical fulfillment) which lay east of Dry Lake.

Rumors of the excursion seeped through the channels of gossip and set the town talking and chuckling and

Rumors grew to definite though erroneous statements of what was to take place. Definite statements became

Came Florence Grace Hallman smilingly from Great Falls, to canvass the town for "accommodations."

Florence Grace Hallman was a capable woman and a persuasive one, though perhaps a shade too much

inclined to take certain things for granted such as Andy's anchored interest in her and her project, and the

probability of the tract remaining just as it had been when last she went carefully over the plat in the land

office. Florence Grace Hallman had been busy arranging the details of the coming of the colony, and she had

neglected to visit the land office lately. Since she cannily represented the excursion as being merely a

sightseeing tripor some such innocuous projectshe failed also to receive any inkling of recent

On a certain sunny morning in midMay, the Happy Family stood upon the depot platform and waited for the

westbound passenger, that had attached to it the special car of the homeseekers' Syndicate. The Happy Family

had been very busy during the past three weeks. They had taken all the land they could, and had sighed

because they could still look from their claims upon pinnacles as yet unclaimed save by the government.

They had done well. From the south line of Meeker's land in the very foothills of the Bear Paws, to the north

line of the Flying U, the chain of newlyfiled claims remained unbroken. It had taken some careful work

upon the part of the Happy Family to do this and still choose land not absolutely worthless except from a

scenic viewpoint. But they had managed it, with some bickering and a good deal of maneuvering. Also they

had hauled loads of lumber from Dry Lake, wherewith to build their monotonously modest tenby twelve

shacks with one door and one window apiece and a round hole in the roof big enough for a length of

stovepipe to thrust itself aggressively into the open and say by its smoke signal whether the owner was at

home. And now, having heard of the mysterious excursion due that day, they had come to see just what

"She's fifteen minutes late," the agent volunteered, thrusting his head through the open window. "Looking for

"Andy is," Pink informed him cheerfully. "The rest of us are just hanging around through sympathy. It's his

"Well, I guess he thinks he needs a housekeeper now," the agent grinned. "Why don't you fellows get busy

"Girls don't like to cook over a campfire," Cal Emmett told him soberly. "We kinda thought we ought to

"You can pick you out some when the train gets in," said the agent, accepting a match from Weary. "There's a

carload of" He pulled in his head hurriedly and laid supple fingers on the telegraph key to answer a call,

and the Happy Family moved down to the other end of the platform where there was more shade.

The agent presently appeared pushing the truck of outgoing express, a cheap trunk and a basket "telescope"

belonging to one of the hotel girlswho had quit her job and was sitting now inside waiting for the train and

seeing what she could of the Flying U boys through the windowand the mail sack. He placed the truck

where the baggage car would come to a halt, stood for a minute looking down the track where a smudge of

smoke might at any moment be expected to show itself over the low ridge of a hill, glanced at the lazy group

Weary looked up from whittling a notch in the end of a platform plank and closed his jackknife languidly.

Andy pushed his hat backward and then tilted it forward over one eyebrow and threw away his cigarette.

"Wonder if Florence Grace will be riding point on the bunch?" he speculated aloud. "If she is, I'm liable to

have my hands full. Florence Grace will sure be sore when she finds out how I got into the game."

"Aw, I betche there ain't no such a person," said Happy Jack, doubter to the last.

"I wish there wasn't," sighed Andy. "Florence Grace is kinda getting on my nerves. If I done what I feel like

doing, I'd crawl under the platform and size up the layout through a crack. Honest to gracious, Boys, I hate to

They grinned at him heartlessly and stared at the black smudge that was rolling toward them. "She's sure

hittin' her up," Pink vouchsafed with a certain tenseness of tone. That train was not as ordinary trains; dimly

they felt that it was relentlessly bringing them trouble, perhaps; certainly a problemunless the homeseekers

hovered only so long as it took them to see that wisdom lay in looking elsewhere for a home. Still

"If this was August instead of May, I wouldn't worry none about them pilgrims staying long," Jack Bates

"There comes two livery rigs to haul 'em to the hotel," Pink pointed out as he glanced toward town. And

there's another one. Johnny told me every room they've got is spoke for, and two in every bed."

"That wouldn't take no crowd," Happy Jack grumbled, remembering the limitations of Dry Lake's hotel.

The Little Doctor left Chip to get their tickets and walked quickly toward them.

"To me? Well, we're going up to make our filings. Claude won't take a homestead, because we'll have to stay

on at the Flying U, of course, and we couldn't hold one. But we'll both file desert claims. J. G. hasn't been a

bit well, and I didn't dare leave him beforeand of course Claude wouldn't go till I did. That the passenger

"It's the trainwith the dryfarmers," Andy informed her with a glance at the nearing smokesmudge.

"Is it? We aren't any too soon then, are we? I left Son at homeand he threatened to run away and live with

you boys. I almost wish I'd brought him along. He's been perfectly awful. So have the men Claude hired to

take your places, if you want to know, boys. I believe that is what made J. G. sickhaving those strange men

"He did, yes. He told him right away, that evening. But J. G. has such stubborn ideas. We couldn't make

him believe that anyone would be crazy enough to take up that land and try to make a living farming it.

"That's what he says. He pretends that you boys meant to quit, and just thought that up for an excuse. He'll be

A black nose thrust through a Deep cut that had a curve to it. At their feet the rails began to hum. The Little

Doctor turned hastily to see if Chip were coming. The agent came out with a handful of papers and stood

waiting with the rest. Stragglers moved quickly, and the discharged waitress appeared and made eyes covertly

The train slid up, slowed and stopped. Two coaches beyond the platform a worried porter descended and

placed the boxstep for landing passengers, and waited. From that particular coach began presently to emerge

a fluttering, exclaiming stream of humanityat first mostly feminine. They hovered there upon the cindery

path and lifted their faces to watch for others yet to come, and the babble of their voices could be, heard

The Happy Family looked dumbly at one another and drew back closer to the depot wall.

"Aw, I knowed there was some ketch to it!" blurted Happy Jack with dismal satisfaction. "That there ain't no

"That lady ridin' point is the lady herself," Andy murmured, edging behind Weary and Pink as the flutter

"Well, by golly, git out and speak your little piece, then!" muttered Slim, and gave Andy an unexpected push

"Why, how de do, Mr. Green!" cried the blonde leader of the flock. "This is an unexpected pleasure, I'm

"Yes ma'am, it is," Andy assented mildly, with an eye cocked sidewise in search of the guilty man.

The blonde leader paused, her flock coming to a fluttering, staring stand behind her. The nostrils of the

"Well, where have you been, Mr. Green? Why didn't you come and see me?" demanded Florence, Grace

Hallman in the tone of one who has a right to ask leading questions. Her cool, brown, calculating eyes went

"I've been right around here, all the time," Andy gave meek account of himself. "I've been busy."

"Privatelyit's pretty big." Andy sighed. The bigness of that tract had worried the Happy Family a good

"Well, the bigger the better. You see I've got 'em started." She flicked a glance backward at her waiting

colony. "You men are perfectly exasperating! Why didn't you tell me where you were and what you were

doing?" She looked up at him with charming disapproval. "I feel like shaking you! I could have made good

"I was making pretty good use of myself," Andy explained, and wished he knew who gave him that

surreptitious kick on the ankle. Did the chump want an introduction? Well! In that case

"Miss Hallman, if you don't mind I'd like to introduce some men I rounded up and brought here," he began

before the Happy Family could move out of the danger zone of his imagination. "Representative citizens, you

see. You can sic your bunch onto 'em and get a lot of information. This is Mr. Weary Davidson, Miss

Hallman: He's a hayseed that lives out that way and he talks spuds better than anything else. And here's

SlimI don't know his right namehe raises hogs to a fare youwell. And this is Percy

Perkins"meaning Pink"and he's another successful dryfarmer. Goats is his trade. He's got a lot of 'em.

And Mr. Jack Bates, he raises peanutsor he's trying 'em this yearand has contracts to supply the local

market. Mr. Happy Jack is our local undertaker. He wants to sell out if he can, because nobody ever dies in

this country and that makes business slow. He's thinking some of starting a duckranch. This man"

indicating Big Medicine" has got the finest looking crop of volunteer wild oats in the country. He knows

all about 'em. Mr. Emmett, here, can put you wise to cabbageheads; that's his specialty. And Mr. Miguel

Rapponi is up here from Old Mexico looking for a favorable location for an extensive rubber plantation. The

"I've gone to some trouble gathering this bunch together for you, Miss Hallman. I don't reckon you knew

there was that many dryfarmers in the country. They've all got ranches of their own, and the prettiest folders

you ever sent under a fourcent stamp can't come up to what these men can tell you. Your bunch won't have

Miss Hallman was impressed. A few of the closest homeseekers she beckoned and introduced to the

perspiring Happy Family mostly feminine homeseekers, of whom there were a dozen or so. The men

whom the hotel had sent down with rigs waited impatiently, and the unintroduced male colonists stared at the

low rim of Lonesome Prairie and wondered if over there lay their future prosperity.

When the Happy Family finally made their escape, redfaced and muttering threats, Andy Green had

disappeared, and no one knew when he went or where. He was not in Rusty Brown's place when the Happy

Family went to that haven and washed down their wrongs in beer. Pink made a hurried trip to the livery stable

They were wondering among themselves whether he would have the nerve to go home and await their

cominghome at this stage of the game meaning One Man coulee, which Andy had taken as a homestead

and desert claim and where the Happy Family camped together until such time as their claim shacks were

habitable. Some thought that he was hiding in town, and advised a thorough search before they took to their

horses. The Native Sonhe of mixed Irish and Spanish bloodtold them with languid certainty that Andy

was headed straight for the camp because he would figure that in camp was where they would least expect to

The opinions of the Native Son were usually worth adopting. In this case, however, it brought them into the

street at the very moment when Florence Grace Hallman and two homeseekers had ventured from the hotel in

search of them. Slim and Jack Bates and Cal Emmett saw them in time and shied across the street and into the

new barber shop where they sat themselves down and demanded unnecessary haircuts and a shampoo

apiece, and spied upon their unfortunate fellows through the window while they waited; but the others met

the women fairly since it was too late to turn back without making themselves ridiculous.

"I was wondering," began Miss Hallman in her brisk, business tone, "if some of you gentlemen could not

help us out in the matter of conveyances. I have made arrangements for most of my guests, but we simply

can't squeeze another one into the rigs I have engagedand I've engaged every vehicle in town except a

"How many are left out?" asked Weary, since no one else showed any symptoms of speech.

"Oh, not many, thank goodness. Just us three here. You've met Miss Allen, Mr. Davidsonand Miss Price.

And so have you other gentlemen, because I introduced you at the depot. I went blandly ahead and told

everybody just which rig they were to ride in, and put three in a seat, at that, and in counting noses I forgot to

"I really don't see how she managed to overlook mine," sighed Miss Allen, laying a dainty, gloved finger

upon a nose that had the tiniest possible tilt to it. "Nobody ever overlooked my nose before; it's almost worth

Irish, standing close beside Weary and looking enough like him to be a twin instead of a mere cousin, smiled

down at her with traitorous admiration. Miss Allen's nose was a nice nose, and above it twinkled a pair of

warm brown eyes with humorous little wrinkles , around them; and still above them fluffed a kinkycurly

mass of brown hair. Weary looked at her also, but he did not smile, because she looked a little like his own

schoolma'am, Miss Ruty Satterlyand the resemblance hurt a sore place in his heart.

"So if any of you gentlemen could possibly take us out to the tract, we'd be eternally grateful, besides

"We all came in on horseback," Weary stated with a gentle firmness that was intended to kill their hopes as

"Wouldn't there be room on behind?" asked Miss Allen with hope still alive and flourishing.

"But isn't there any kind of a rig that you could buy, beg, borrow or steal?" Miss Hallman insisted. "These

girls came from Wisconsin to take up claims, and I've promised to see that they get the best there is to be had.

They are hustlers, if I know what the word means. I have a couple of claims in mind, that I want them to

seeand that's why we three hung back till the rest were all arranged for. I had a rig promised that I was

depending on, and at the last minute discovered it was not to be had. Some doctor from Havre came and got it

for a trip into the hills. There's no use talking; we just must get out to the tract as soon as the others doa

"We'll try," Irish promised rashly, his eyes tying to meet Miss Allen's and succeeding admirably.

"What has become of Mr. Green?" Miss Hallman demanded after she had thanked Irish with a smile for the

"We don't know,," Weary answered mildly. "We were trying to locate him ourselves."

"Oh, were you? He seems a rather uncertain young man. I rather counted on his assistance; he promised"

"Mr. Irish has thought of a rig he can use, Miss Hallman," said the Allen girl suddenly. "He's going to drive

us out himself. Let's hurry and get ready, so we can start ahead of the others. How many minutes will it take

Irish turned red. He HAD thought of a rig, and he had thought of driving them himself, but he could not

imagine how Miss Allen could possibly; have known his thoughts. Then and there he knew who would

occupy the other half of the front seat, in case he did really drive the team he had in mind.

"I told you she's a hustler," laughed Miss Hallman. "She'll be raising bigger crops than you mengive her a

They turned abruptly away, and Irish was left to his accounting with the Happy Family. He had not denied

the thoughts and intentions imputed to him by the twinklingeyed Miss Allen. They walked on toward the

livery stablewhere was manifested an unwonted activitywaiting for Irish to clear himself; which he did

"You going to drive them women out there?" Pink demanded after an impatient silence.

"Chip's" Irish did not glance around, but kept striding down the middle of the road with his hands stuck deep

"Don't you think you need help, amigo?" the Native Son insinuated craftily. "You can't talk to three girls at

once; I could be hired to go along and take one off your hands. That should help some."

"Like hell you will!" Irish retorted with characteristic bluntness. Then he added cautiously, "Which one?"

"That old girl with the blue eyes should not be permitted to annoy the driver," drawled the Native Son. "Also,

"Well, I got my opinion of any man that'll throw in with that bunch," Pink declared hotly. "Why don't you

fellows keep your own side the fence. What if they are women farmers? They can do just as much

"Let 'em go," Weary advised calmly. "They'll be a lot sicker when the ladies discover what they've helped do

to that benchland. Come on, boyslet's pull out, away from all these lunatics. I hate to see them get stung,

but I don't see what we can do about itonly, if they come around asking me what I think of that land, I'm

"And then they'll ask you why you took claims up there, and you'll tell 'em that, toowill you?" The Native

That was it. They could not tell the truth without harming their own cause. They could not do anything except

stand aside and see the thing through to whatever end fate might decree. They thought that Irish and the

Native Son were foolish to take Chip's team and drive those women fifteen miles or so that they might seize

upon land much better left alone; but that was the business of Irish and the Native Son, who did not ask for

The Happy Family saddled and rode back to the claims, gravely discussing the potentialities of the future.

Since they rode slowly while they talked, they were presently overtaken by a swirl of dust, behind which

came the matched browns which were the Flying U's crack driving team, bearing Irish and Miss Allen of the

twinkling eyes upon the front seat of a two seated springwagon that had seen far better days than this.

Native Son helped to crowd the back seat uncomfortably, and waved a hand with reprehensible cheerfulness

The Happy Family stared after them with frowning disapproval, and Weary turned in the saddle and looked

"Things won't ever be the same around here," he predicted soberly. "There goes the beginning of the end of

Andy Green rode thoughtfully up the trail from his cabin in One Man coulee, his hat tilted to the south to

shield his face from the climbing sun, his eyes fixed absently upon the yellow soil of the hillside. Andy was

facing a problem that concerned the whole Happy Familyand the Flying U as well. He wanted Weary's

opinion, and Miguel Rapponi's, and Pink's when it came to that, he wanted the opinion of them all.

Thus far the boys had been wholly occupied with getting their shacks built and in rustling cooking outfits and

getting themselves settled upon their claims with an air of convincing permanency. Also they had watched

with keen interestwhich was something more vital than mere curiositydevelopments where the

homeseekers were concerned, and had not given very much thought to their next step, except in a purely

They all recognized the fact that, with all these new settlers buzzing around hunting claims where there was

some promise of making things grow, they would have to sit very tight indeed upon their own land if they

would avoid trouble with "jumpers." Not all the homeseekers were women. There were men, plenty of them;

a few of them were wholly lacking in experience it is true, but perhaps the more greedy for land because of

their ignorance. The old farmers had looked askance at the high, dry prairie land, where even drinking water

must be hauled in barrels from some deepset creek whose shallow gurgling would probably cease altogether

when the dry season came on the heels of June. The old farmers had asked questions that implied doubt. They

had wanted to know about subsoil, and average rainfall, and late frosts, and markets. The profusely

illustrated folders that used blue print for emphasis here and there, seemed no longer to satisfy them.

The Happy Family did not worry much about the old farmers who knew the game, but there were town men

who had come to see the fulfillment of their dreams; who had burned their bridges, some of them, and would

suffer much before they would turn back to face the ridicule of their friends and the disheartening task of

getting; a fresh foothold in the wage market. These the Happy Family knew for incipient enemies once the

struggle for existence was fairly begun. And there were the womendaring rivals of the men in their fight

for independencewho had dreamed dreams and raised up ideals for which they would fight tenaciously.

School teachers who hated the routine of the schools, and who wanted freedom; who were willing to work

and wait and forego the little, cheap luxuries which are so dear to women; who would cheerfully endure

loneliness and spoiled complexions and roughened hands and broken nails, and see the prairie winds and sun

wipe the sheen from their hair; who would wear coarse, heavysoled shoes and keep all their pretty finery

packed carefully away in their trunks with dainty sachet pads for month after month, and take all their

pleasure in dreaming of the future; these would fight also to have and to holdand they would fight harder

than the men, more dangerously than the men, because they would fight differently.

The Happy Family, then, having recognized these things and having measured the fightingelement, knew

that they were squarely up against a slow, grim, relentless war if they would save the Flying U. They knew

that it was going to be a pretty stiff proposition, and that they would have to obey strictly the letter and the

spirit of the land laws, or there would be contests and quarrels and trouble without end.

So they hammered and sawed and fitted boards and nailed on tarpaper and swore and jangled and joshed

one another and counted nickelswhere they used to disdain counting anything but resultsand badgered

the life out of Patsy because he kicked at being expected to cook for the bunch just the same as if he were in

the Flying U messhouse. Py cosh, he wouldn't cook for the whole country just because they were too lazy to

cook for themselves, and py cosh if they wanted him to cook for them they could pay him sixty dollars a

The Happy Family were no millionaires, and they made the fact plain to Patsy to the full extent of their

vocabularies. But still they begged bread from him, a loaf at a time, and couldn't see why he objected to

making pie, if they furnished the stuff. Why, for gosh sake, had they planted him in the very middle of their

string of claims, then? With a dandy spring too, that never went dry except in the driest years, and not more

than seventyfive yards, at the outside, to carry water. Up hill? Well, what of that? Look at Pinkhad to

haul water half a mile from One Man Creek, and no trail. Look at Wearyhad to pack water twice as far as

Patsy. And hadn't they clubbed together and put up his darned shack first thing, just so he COULD get busy

Wellyou see that the Happy Family had been fully occupied in the week since the arrival of the

homeseekers' excursion. They could not be expected to give very much thought to their next steps. But there

was Andy, who had only to move into the cabin in One Man coulee, with a spring handy, and a stable for his

horse, and a corral and everything. Andy had not been harassed with the housebuilding and settling, except

as he assisted the others. As fast as the shacks were up, the Happy Family had taken possession, so that now

Andy was alone, stuck down there in the coulee out of sight of everybody. Pink had once named One Man

coulee as the lonesomest hole in all that country, and he had not been far wrong. But at any rate the

lonesomeness had served one good purpose, for it had started Andy to thinking out the details of their so

called landpool. Now the thinking had borne fruit to the extent that he felt an urgent need of the Happy

As he topped at last the final rise which put him on a level with the great undulating benchland gashed here

and there with coulees and narrow gulches that gave no evidence of their existence until one rode quite close,

he lifted his head and gazed about him half regretfully, half proudly. He hated to see that wide upland dotted

here and there with new, raw buildings, which proclaimed themselves claimshacks as far a one could see

them. Andy hated the sight of claim shacks with a hatred born of long range experience and the vital

interests of the cattleman. A claimshack stuck out on the prairie meant a barbed wire fence somewhere in

the immediate vicinity; and that meant a hindrance to the easy handling of herds. A claimshack meant a

nester, and a nester was a nuisance, with his plowed fields and his few head of cattle that must be

painstakingly weeded out of a herd to prevent a howl going up to high heaven. Therefore, Andy Green

instinctively hated the sight of a shack on the prairie. On the other hand, those shacks belonged to the Happy

Family and that pleased him. From where he sat on his horse he could count five in sight, and there were

But there were others going upshacks whose owners he did not know. He scowled when he saw, on distant

hilltops, the yellow skeletons that would presently be fattened with boards and paper and made the

dwellingplace of interlopers. To be sure, they had as much right to take government land as had he or any of

From one partially built shack three quarters of a mile away on a bald ridge which the Happy Family had

passed up because of its barrenness and the barrenness of the coulee on the other side, and because no one

was willing to waste even a desert right on that particular eightyacres, a team and light buggy came swiftly

toward him. Andy, trained to quick thinking, was puzzled at the direction the driver was taking. That eighty

acres joined his own west line, and unless the driver was lost or on the way to One Man coulee, there was no

He watched and saw that the team was comin' straight toward him over the uneven prairie sod, and at a pace

that threatened damage to the buggysprings. Instinctively Andy braced himself in the saddle. At a half mile

he knew the team, and it did not require much shrewdness to guess at the errand. He twitched the reins,

turned his spurred heels against his horse and went loping over the grassland to meet the person who drove in

such haste; and the probability that he was meeting trouble halfway only sent him the more eagerly forward.

Trouble met him with hard, brown eyes and corn yellow hair blown in loose strands across cheeks roughened

by the spring winds and sunglare of Montana. Trouble pulled up and twisted sidewise in the seat and kicked

the heads off some wild larkspurs with her whip while her tongue flayed the soul of Andy Green with

"Well, I have found out just how you helped me colonize this tract, Mr. Green," she began with a hard

inflection under the smoothness of her voice. "I must compliment you upon your promptness and

thoroughness in the matter; for an amateur you have made a remarkable showinginin treachery and

"Remember, I told you I might buy in if it looked good to me," Andy reminded her in the mildest tone of

Florence Grace Hallman looked at him with a lift of her full upper lip at the left side. "It does look good,

then? You told Mr. Graham and that Mr. Wirt a different story, Mr. Green. You told them this land won't

raise white beans, and you were at some pains, I believe, to explain why it would not. You convinced them,

by some means or other, that the whole tract is practically worthless for agricultural purposes. Both Mr. Wirt

and Mr. Graham had some capital to invest here, and now they are leaving, and they have persuaded several

others to leave with them. Does it really look good to youthis land proposition?"

"Not your propositionno, it don't." Andy faced her with a Keen level glance as hard as her own. One could

get the truth straight from the shoulder if one pushed Andy Green into a corner. "You know and I know that

you're trying to colddeck this bunch. The land won't raise white beans or anything else without water, and

you know it. You can plant folks on the land and collect your money and tell 'em goodbye and go to itand

that settles your part of it. But how about the poor devils that put in their time and money?"

Florence Grace Hallman spread her hands in a limited gesture because of the reins, and smiled unpleasantly.

"And yet, you nearly broke your neck filing on the land yourself and getting a lot of your friends to file," she

"My object don't matter to anyone but myself." Andy busied himself with his smoking material and did not

"Oh, but it Does! It matters to me, Mr. Green, and to my company, and to our clients."

"I'll have to buy me a new dictionary," Andy observed casually, reaching behind him to scratch a match on

the skirt of his saddle. "The one I've got don't say anything about 'client' and 'victim' meaning the same thing.

"I brought enough clients" she emphasized the word" to settle every eighty acres of land in that whole

tract. The policy of the company was eminently fair. We guaranteed to furnish a claim of eighty, acres to

every person who joined our homeseekers' Club, and free pasturage to all the stock they wanted to bring.

Failing to do that, we pledged ourselves to refund the fee and pay all return expenses. We could have located

"Say, it'd be just as easy to swear as to say 'you' in that tone uh voice," Andy pointed out placidly.

"You managed to gobble up just exactly four thousand acres of this tractand you were careful to get all the

water and all the best land. That means you have knocked us out of fifty settlements"

"Fifty wads of coin to hand back to fifty comeons, and fifty return tickets for fifty fellows glad to get

backtough luck, ain't it?" Andy smiled sympathetically. "You oughta be glad I saved your conscience that

Florence Grace Hallman bit her lip to control her rage. "Smart talk isn't going to help you, Mr. Green. You've

simply placed yourself in a position you can't' hold. You've put it up to us to fightand we're going to do it.

I'm playing fair with you. I'll tell you this much: I've investigated you and your friends pretty thoroughly, and

it's easy to guess what your object is. We rather expected the Flying U to fight this colonization scheme, so

we are neither surprised nor unprepared. Mr. Green, for your own interest and that of your employer, let me

advise you to abandon your claims now, before we begin action in the matter. It will be simpler, and far, far

cheaper. We have our clients to look after, and we have the law all on our side. These are bona fide settlers

we are bringing in; men and women whose sole object is to make homes for themselves. The land laws are

pretty strict, Mr. Green. If we set the wheels in motion they will break the Flying U."

Andy grinned while he inspected his cigarette. "FunnyI heard a man brag once about how he'd break the

Flying U, with sheep," he drawled. "He didn't connect, though; the Flying U broke him." He smoked until he

saw an angry retort parting the red lips of the lady, and then continued calmly:

"The Flying U has got nothing to do with this case. As a matter of fact, old man Whitmore is pretty sore at us

fellows right now, because we quit him and turned nesters right under his nose. Miss Hallman, you'll have

one sweet time proving that we ain't bona fide settlers. We're just crazy to make homes for ourselves. We

think it's time we settled downand we're settling here because we're used to this country. We're real sorry

you didn't find it necessary to pay your folks for the fun of pointing out the land to us and steering us to the

land officebut we can't help that. We needed the money to buy plows." He looked at her full with his

honest, gray eyes that could so deceive his fellow mento say nothing of women. "And that reminds me,

I've got to go and borrow a garden rake. I'm planting a patch of onions," he explained engagingly. "Say, this

farming is a great game, isn't it? Well, good day, Miss Hallman. Glad I happened to meet you."

"You won't be when I get through with you!" predicted the lady with her firm chin thrust a little forward.

"You think you've got everything your own way, don't you? Well, you've just simply put yourself in a

position where we can get at you. You deceived me from the very startand now you shall pay the penalty.

I've got our clients to protectand besides that I shall dearly love to get even. Oh, you'll squeal for mercy,

believe me!" She touched up the horses with her whip and went bumping away over the tough sod.

"Wow!" ejaculated Andy, looking after her with laughter in his eyes. "She's sure one mad lady, all right. But

shucks!" He turned and galloped off toward the farthest claim, which was Happy Jack's and the last one to be

He was lucky. The Happy Family were foregathered there, wrangling with Happy Jack over some trifling

thing. He joined zealously in the argument and helped them thrash Happy Jack in the wordwar, before he

"Say, boys, we'll have to get busy now," he told them seriously at last. "Florence Grace is onto us bigger'n a

wolfand if I'm any judge, that lady's going to be some fighter. We've either got to plow up a bunch of

ground and plant some darn thing, or else get stock on and pasture it. They ain't going to over look any bets

from now on. I met her back here on the bench. She was so mad she talked too much and I got next to their

schemeseems like we've knocked the Syndicate outa quite a bunch of money, all right. They want this

"Now my idea is this: We've got to have stock, or we can't graze the land. And if we take Flying U cattle and

throw 'em on here, they'll contest us for taking fake claims, for the outfit. So what's the matter with us buying

"Listen here. ;We buy a bunch of stock and give him mortgages for the money, with the cattle for security.

We graze 'em till the mortgage runs outtill we prove up, that meansand then we don't spot up, and the

Old Man takes the stock back. see? We're grazing our own stock, according to lawbut the outfit"

"Where do we git off at?" demanded Happy Jack suspiciously. "We got to liveand it takes money to buy

"Well, we'll make out all right. We can have so many head of cattle named for the mortgage; there'll be

increase, and we should get that. By the time we all prove up we'll have a little bunch of stock of our own'

d',uh see? And we'll have the rangewhat there is left. These squatters ain't going to last over winter, if you

ask me. And it'll be a long, cold day when another bunch of greenhorns bites on any colony scheme."

"How do you know the Old Man'll do that, though?" Weary wanted to know. "He's pretty mad. I rode over to

the ranch last week to see Chip, and the Old Man wouldn't have anything to say to me."

"Well, what's the matter with all of us going? He can't pass up the whole bunch. We can put it up to him just

the way it is, and he'll see where it's going to be to his interest to let us have the cattle. Why, darn it, he can't

help seeing now why we quit!" Pink looked ready to start then, while his enthusiasm was fresh.

"Neither can Florence Grace help seeing why we did it," Andy supplemented dryly. "She can think what she

darn pleasesall we got to do is deliver the goods right up to the handle, on these claims and not let her

"It'll take a lot uh fencing," Happy Jack croaked pessimistically. "We ain't got the money to buy wire and

"What's the matter with rangherding 'em?" Andy seemed to have thought it all out, and to have an answer

for every objection. "We can take turns at thatand we must all be careful and don't let 'em graze on our

"Maybe the Old Man'll let us have three or four hundred head uh cows on shares," Cal hazarded

"Can't take 'em that way," said the Native Son languidly. "It wouldn't be safe. Andy's right; the way to do is

buy the cattle outright, and give a mortgage on the bunch. And I think we better split the bunch, and let every

fellow buy a few head. We can graze 'em togetherthe law can't stop us from doing that."

"Sounds goodif the Old Man will come to the centre," said Weary dubiously. The chill atmosphere of

Flying U coulee, with strangers in the bunkhouse and with the Old Man scowling at his paper on the porch,

"Oh, he'll come through," cried Cal, moving toward his horse. "gee whiz, he's got to! Come onlet's go and

get it done with. As it stands now, we ain't got a thing to do but set around and look wiseunless we go

spoiling good grass with plows. First thing we know our neighbors will be saying we ain't improving our

"You improve yours every time you git off it!" stated Happy Jack spitefully because of past wrongs. "You

could improve mine a whole lot that way, too," he added when he heard the laugh of approval from the

They rung all the changes possible upon that witticism while they mounted and rode away, every man of

them secretly glad of some excuse for making overtures to the Old Man. Spite of the excitement of getting on

to their claims, and of watching strangers driving here and there in haste, and hauling loads of lumber

toilfully over the untracked grass and building chickencoop dwellings as nearly alike as the buttons on a new

shirtspite of all that they had felt keenly their exile from Flying U ranch. They had stayed away, for two

reasons: one was a latent stubbornness which made them resent the Old Man's resentment; the other was a

matter of policy, as preached by Andy Green and the Native Son. It would not do, said these two cautious

So the Happy Family had steered clear since that afternoon when they had simulated treachery to the outfit.

And fate played them a scurvy trick in spite of their caution, for just as they rode down the Hog's Back and

across the ford, Florence Grace Hallman rode away from the White House and met them fairly at the stable.

Florence Grace smiled a peculiar smile as she went past them. A smile that promised she would not forget; a

smile that told them how sure she felt of having caught them fairly. With the smile went a chilly, supercilious

bow that was worse than a direct cut, and which the Happy Family returned doubtfully, not at all sure of the

With the Kid riding gleefully upon Weary's shoulder they trooped up the path their own feet had helped wear

deep to the bunkhouse. They looked in at the open door and snorted at the cheerlessness of the place.

"Why don't you come back here and stay?" the Kid demanded. "I was going to sleep down here with

youand now Doctor Dell won't let me. These hobees are no good. They're damn' bone head. Daddy Chip

says so. I wish you'd come back, so I can sleep with you. One man's named Ole and he's got a funny eye that

The Happy Family wished the same thing, but they did not say so. Instead they told the Kid to ask his mother

if he couldn't come and visit them in their new shacks, and promised indulgences that would have shocked

the Little Doctor had she heard them. So they went on to the house, where the Old Man sat on the porch

"Why don't yuh run them nesters outa the country?" he demanded peevishly when they were close enough for

speech. "Here they come and accuse me to my face of trying to defraud the gov'ment. Doggone you boys,

what you think you're up to, anyway? What's three or four thousand acres when they're swarming in here like

flies to a butcherin'? They can't make a livingserve 'em right. What you doggone rowdies want now?"

Not a cordial welcome, thatif they went no deeper than his words. But there was the old twinkle back of

the querulousness in the Old Man's eyes, and the old pucker of the lips behind his grizzled whiskers. "You've

got that doggone Kid broke to foller yuh so we can't keep him on the ranch no more," he added fretfully.

"Tried to run away twice, on Silver. Chip had to go round him up. Found him last time pretty near over to

Antelope coulee, hittin' the high places for town. Might as well take yuh back, I guess, and save time running

"We've got to hold down our claims," Weary minded him regretfully. In three weeks, he could see a

"What's that amount to?" grumbled the Old Man, looking from one to the other under his graying eye brows.

"You can't stop them dryfarmers from taking the country. Yuh might as well try to dip the Missouri dry with

"No, they won't," put in Big Medicine, impatient for the real meat of their errand. "By cripes, we got a

"We want to buy a bunch of cattle from you," Weary said obediently. "We want to graze our claims, instead

of trying to crop the land. We haven't any fence up, so we'll have to rangeherd our stock, of course. Idon't

hardly think any nester stock will get by us, J. G. And seeing our land runs straight through from Meeker's

line fence to yours, we kinda think we've got the nesters pretty well corralled. They're welcome to the range

between Antelope coulee and Dry Lake, far as we're concerned. Soon as we can afford it," he added

tranquilly, "we'll stretch a fence along our west line that'll hold all the darn milkcows they've a mind to ship

"Oh, yuh do, ay? What if I have to foreclose on yuh?" The pucker of his lips grew more pronounced." Where

"Well, we kinda thought we could fix it up to save part of the increase outa the wreck, anyway."

"Oh. That's it ay?" He studied them another minute. "You'll want all my best cows, too, I reckonall that

"We wouldn't mind," grinned Weary, glancing at the others roosting at ease along the edge of the porch.

"Sure, we could! We'd rather split 'em up amongst us, thoughlet every fellow buy so many. We can throw

"Think you can keep the milkcows between you and Dry Lake, ay?" The Old Man chuckledthe first little

chuckle since the Happy Family left him so unceremoniously three weeks before. "How about that, Pink?"

"Huh! Well, you're the toughest bunch, take yuh up one side and down the other, I ever seen keep onta jailI

guess maybe you can do it. But lemme tell you boys somethingand I want you to remember it: You don't

want to git the idea in your heads you're going to have any snap; you ain't. If I know B from a bull's foot,

you've got your work cut out for yuh. I've been keeping cases pretty close on this dryfarm craze, and this

stampede for claims. Folks are land crazy. They've got the idea that a few acres of land is going to make 'em

free and independentand it don't matter much what the land is, or where it is. So long as it's land, and they

can git it from the government for next to nothing, they're satisfied. And yuh want to remember that. Yuh

don't want to take it for granted they're going to take a look at your deadline and back up. If they ship in

stock, they're going to see to it that stock don't starve. You'll have to hold off men and women that's making

their last stand, some of 'em, for a home of their own. They ain't going to give up if they can help it. You get

a man with his back agin the wall, and he'll fight till he drops. I don't need to tell yuh that."

The Happy Family listened to him soberly, their eyes staring broodily at the picture he conjured.

"Well, by golly, we're makin' our last stand, too," Slim blurted with his customary unexpectedness. "Our

back's agin the wall right now. If we can't hold 'em back from takin' what little range is left, this outfit's going

The Old Man lifted his bent head and looked from one to another. Pride shone in his eyes, that had lately

stared resentment. "Yuh know, don't yuh, the biggest club they can use?" He leaned forward a little, his lips

"We want a good lawyer to draw up those mortgages," put in the Native Son lazily. "And we'll pay eight per

"Doggonedest crazy bunch ever I struck," grumbled the Old Man with grateful insincerity. "What you fellers

don't think of, there ain't any use in mentioning. Oh, Dell! Bring out that jug Blake sent me! Doggoned thirsty

bunch out herewon't stir a foot till they sample that wine! Got to get rid of 'em somehowthey claim to be

full uh business as a jack rabbit is of fleas! When yuh want to git out and round up them cows? Wagon's over

on Dry creek som'ersor ought to be. Yuh might take your soogans and ride ove' there tomorrow or next

day and ketch 'em. I'll write a note to Chip and tell 'im what's to be done. And while you're pickin' your bunch

you can draw wages just the same as ever, and help them doubledutch blisterin' milkfed pilgrims with the

"We'll sure do that," promised Weary for the bunch. "We can start in the morning, all right."

"Take a taste uh this wine. None of your tobaccojuice stuff; this comes straight from Fresno. Senator Blake

sent it the other day. Fill up that glass, Dell! What yuh want to be so doggone stingy fer? Think this bunch uh

freaks are going to stand for that? They can't git the taste outa less'n a pint. This ain't any doggone livertonic

The Little Doctor smiled understandingly and filled their glasses with the precious wine from sunland. She

did not know what had happened, but she did know that the Old Man had seized another handhold on life in

the last hour, and she was grateful. She even permitted the Kid to take a tiny sip, just because the Happy

So Flying U coulee was for the time being filled with the same old laughter and the same atmosphere of

carefree contentment with life. The Countess stewed uncomplainingly in the kitchen, cooking dinner for the

boys. The Old Man grumbled hypocritically at them from his big chair, and named their faults in the tone that

transmuted them into virtues. The Little Doctor heard about Miss Allen and her three partners, who were

building a fourroom shack on the four corners of four claims, and how Irish had been caught more than once

in the act of staring fixedly in the direction of that shack. She heard a good many things, and she guessed a

By mid afternoon the Old Man was fifty per cent brighter and better than he had been in the morning, and he

laughed and bullied them as of old. When they left he told them to clear out and stay out, and that if he caught

them hanging around his ranch, and making it look as if he were backing them and trying to defraud the

government, he'd sic the dog onto them. Which tickled the Kid immensely, because there wasn't any dog to

In the softcreeping dusk came Andy Green, slouched in the saddle with the weariness of riding since dawn;

slouched to one side and singing, with his hat far back on his head and the last of a red sunset tinting darkly

the hills above him. Tiptoe on a pinnacle a great, yellow star poised and winked at him knowingly. Andy's

eyes twinkled answer as he glanced up that way. "We've got her going, oldtimer," he announced lazily to

Six miles back toward the edge of the "breaks" which are really the beginning of the Badlands that border the

Missouri River all through that part of Montana, an even five hundred head of the Flying U's best grade cows

and their calves were settling down for the night upon a knoll that had been the bedground of many a herd.

At the Flying U ranch, in the care of the Old Man, were the mortgages that would make the Happy Family

nominal owners of those five hundred cows and their calves. In the morning Andy would ride back and help

bring the herd upon its spring grazing ground, which was the claims; in the meantime he was leisurely

obeying an impulse to ride into One Man coulee and spend the night under his own roof. And, say what you

will, there is a satisfaction not to be denied in sleeping sometimes under one's own roof; and it doesn't matter

in the least that the roof is made of prairie dirt thrown upon cottonwood poles. So he sang while he rode, and

his voice boomed loud in the coulee and scared long stilled echoes into repeating the song:

That, if you please, is a song; there are a lot more verses exactly like this one, which may be sung to the tune

of Auld Lang Syne with much effectiveness when one is in a certain mood. So Andy sang, while his tired

horse picked its way circumspectly among the scattered rocks of the trail up the coulee.

Andy swore in his astonishment and gave his horse a kick as a mild hint for haste. He thought he knew every

womanvoice in the neighborhoodor had until the colony camebut this voice, high and sweet and with a

compelling note that stirred him vaguely, was absolutely strange. While he loped forward, silenced for the

moment, he was conscious of a swift, keen thankfulness that Pink had at the last minute decided to stay in

camp that night instead of accompanying Andy to One Man. He was in that mood when a sentimental

encounter appealed to him strongly; and a woman's voice, singing to him from One Man cabin, promised

He did not sing again. There had been something in the voice that held him quiet, listening, expectant. But

she also was silent after that last, high notelike a meadow lark startled in the middle of his song, thought

He came within sight of the cabin, squatting in the shadow of the grove at its back. He half expected ,to see a

light, but the window was dark, the door closed as he had left it. He felt a faint, unreasoning disappointment

that it was so. But he had heard her. That high note that lingered upon the word "here" still tingled his senses.

Then a horse nickered welcomingly, and someone rode out from the deeper shadow at the corner of the cabin,

hesitated as though tempted to flight, and came on uncertainly. They met full before the cabin, and the

"Is thisMr. MalloryIrish?" she asked nervously. "Oh dear! Have I gone and made a fool of myself

"Not at all! Good evening, Miss Allen." Andy folded his hands upon the saddle horn and regarded her with a

"But you're not Irish Mallory. I thought I recognized the voice, or I wouldn't have" She urged her horse a

step closer, and Andy observed from her manner that she was not accustomed to horses. She reined as if she

were driving, so that the horse, bewildered, came sidling up to him. "Who are you?" she asked him sharply.

"Me? Why, I'm a nice young mana lot better singer than Irish. I guess you never heard him, did you?" He

kept his hands folded on the horn, his whole attitude passivea restful, reassuring passivity that lulled her

"Oh, are you Andy Green? I seem to connect that name with your voiceand what little I can see of you."

"That's something, anyway." Andy's tone was one of gratitude. "It's two per cent. better than having to tell

you right out who I am. I met you three different times, Miss Allen," he reproached.

"But always in a crowd," she defended, "and I never talked with you, particularly."

"Oh, well, that's easily fixed," he said. "It's a nice night," he added, looking up appreciatively at the

brightening starsprinkle. "Are you living on your claim now? We can talk particularly on the way over."

Miss Allen laughed and groped for a few loose hairs, found them and tucked them carefully under her

hatcrown. Andy remembered that gesture; it helped him to visualize her clearly in spite of the deepening

"Since daylight, you mean? Not so very far counting milesWe were trailing a herd, you see. But I've been

"Then you want a cup of coffee, before you ride any farther. If I get down, will you let me make it or you? I'd

love to. I'm crazy to see inside your cabin, but I only rode up and tried to peek in the window before you

came. I have two brothers and a cousin, so I understand men pretty well and I know you can talk better when

"Well, we'll ride over, then, and you can make coffee there. I'm not hungry right now."

"Oh." She leaned again and peered at him, trying to read his face. "You don't WANT me to go in!"

"Yes, I dobut I don't. If you stayed and made coffee, tomorrow you'd be kicking yourself for it, and you'd

be blaming me." Which, considering the life he had lived, almost wholly among men, was rather astute of

"Oh." Then she laughed. "You must have some sisters, Mr. Green." She was silent for a minute, looking at

him. "You're right," she said quietly then. "I'm always making a fool of myself, just on the impulse of the

moment. The girls will be worried about me, as it is. But I don't want you to ride any farther, Mr. Green.

What I came to say need not take very long, and I think I can find my way home alone, all right."

"I'll take you home when you're ready to go," said Andy quietly. All at once he had wanted to shield her, to

protect her from even so slight an unconventionality as making his coffee for him. He had felt averse to

putting her at odds with her conventional self, of inviting unfavorable criticism of himself; dimly, because

instinct rather than cold analysis impelled him. What he had told her was the sum total of his formulated

"Well, I'm ready to go now, since you insist on my being conventional. I did not come West with the

expectation of being tied to a book of etiquette, Mr. Green. But I find one can't get away from it after all.

"That's a whole lot, I should say," Andy assured her politely, and refrained from asking her what she expected

to do with that eighty acres of arid land. He turned his tired horse and rode alongside her, prudently waiting

"I'm not supposed to be away over here, you know," she began when they were near the foot of the bluff up

which the trail wound seeking the easiest slopes and avoiding boulders and deep cuts. "I'm supposed to be

just out riding, and the girls expected me back by sundown. But I've been trying and trying to find some of

you Flying U boysas they call you men who have taken so much landon your claims. I don't know that

what I could tell you would do you a particle of goodor anyone else. But I wanted to tell you, anyway, just

"It does lots of good just to meet you," said Andy with straightforward gallantry. "Pleasures are few and far

"You said that very nicely, I'm sure," she snubbed. "Well, I'm going to tell you, anywayjust on the chance

Andy rode a rod or two, glancing at her inquiringly, waiting for her to go on. She was guiding her horse

awkwardly where it needed only to be let alone, and he wanted to give her a lesson in riding. But it seemed

"Miss Hallman is going to make you a lot of trouble," she began abruptly. "I thought perhaps it might be

better for youall of youif you knew it in advance, so there would be no sudden anger and excitement.

All the settlers are antagonistic, Mr. Greenall but me, and one or two of the girls. They are going to do

everything they can to prevent your landscheme from going through. You are going to be watched

"Well, we'll be right there, I guess, when the dust settles," he filled in her thought unmoved.

"Ialmost hope so," she ventured. "For my part, I can see the sideyour side. I can see where it is very

hard for the cattle men to give up their range. It is like the big plantations down south, when the slaves were

freed. It had to be done, and yet it was hard upon those planters who depended on free labor. They resented it

deeply; deeply enough to shed bloodand that is one thing I dread here. I hope, Mr. Green, that you will not

"I understand," said Andy softly. "Acourse, we're pretty bad when we get started, all right. We're liable to

ride up on dark nights and shoot our enemies through the windowI can't deny it, Miss Allen. And if it

comes right to a showdown, I may as well admit that some of us would think nothing at all of taking a man

out and hanging him to the first three we come to, that was big enough to hold him. But now that ladies have

come into the country, acourse we'll try and hold our tempers down all we can. Miss Hallman, nowI don't

suppose there's a man in the bunch that would shoot her, no matter what she done to us. We take pride in

being polite to women. You've read that about us, haven't you, Miss Allen? And you've seen us on the

stagewell, it's a fact, all right. Bad as we are, and wild and tough, and savage when we're crossed, a lady

"Thank you. I felt sure that you would not harm any of us. Will you promise not to be violentnot

Andy sat sidewise in the saddle, so that he faced her. Miss Allen could just make out his form distinctly; his

"Now, Miss Allen," he protested with soft apology "You musta known what to expect when you moved out

amongst us rough characters. You know I can make any promises about being mild with the men that try to

get the best of us. If you've got friendsbrothersanybody here that you think a lot of Miss Allen, I advise

you to send 'em outa the country, before trouble breaks loose; because when she starts she'll start a popping.

I know I can't answer for my self, what I'm liable to do if they bother me; and I'm about the mildest one in the

bunch. What the rest of the boys would doIrish Mallory for instanceI hate to think, Miss Allen.

Afterwards, when he thought it all over dispassionately, Andy wondered why he had talked to Miss Allen like

that. He had not done it deliberately, just to frighten heryet he had frightened her to a certain extent. He

had roused her apprehension for the safety of her neighbors and the ultimate wellbeing of himself and his

fellows. She had been so anxious over winning him to more peaceful ways that she had forgotten to give him

any details of the coming struggle. Andy was sorry for that. He wished, on the way home, that he knew just

Not that it mattered greatly. Whatever she did, Andy felt that it would be futile. The Happy Family were

obeying the land laws implicitly, except as their real incentive had been an unselfish one. He could not feel

that it was wrong to try and save the Flying U; was not loyalty a virtue? And was not the taking of land for

the preservation of a fine, fair dealing outfit that had made itself a power for prosperity and happiness in that

Even though they did, down in their deepest thoughts, think of the Flying U's interest, Andy did not believe

that Florence Grace Hallman or anyone else could produce any evidence that would justify a contest for their

land. Though they planned among themselves for the good of the Flying U, they were obeying the law and

the dictates of their range conscience and their personal ideas of right and justice and loyalty to their friends

and to themselves. They were not conspiring against the general prosperity of the country in the hope of great

personal gain. When you came to that, they were saving fifty men from bitter disappointmentcounting one

Still, Andy wondered why he had represented himself and his friends to be such bloodthirsty devils. He

grinned wickedly over some of the things he had said, and over her womanly perturbation and pleading that

they would spare the lives of their enemies. Oh, wellif she repeated half to Florence Grace Hallman, that

lady would maybe think twice before she tackled the contract of boosting the Happy Family off their claims.

So at the last he managed to justify his lying to her. He liked Miss Allen. He was pleased to think that at least

He went to sleep worrying, not over the trouble which Florence Grace Hallman might be plotting to bring

upon him, but about Miss Allen's given name and her previous condition of servitude. He hoped that she was

not a stenographer, and he hoped her first name was not Mary; and if you know the history of Andy Green

you will remember that he had a reason for disliking both the name and the vocation.

Having nothing more than a general warning of trouble ahead to disturb him, Andy rode blithely back down

the coulee and met the herd just after sunrise. Dreams of Miss Allen had left a pleasant mood behind them,

though the dreams themselves withdrew behind the veil of forgetfulness when he awoke. He wondered what

her first name was. He wondered how far Irish's acquaintance with her had progressed, but he did not worry

much about Irish. Having represented himself to be an exceedingly dangerous man, and having permitted

himself to be persuaded into promising reform and a calm demeanorfor her sakehe felt tolerably sure of

her interest in him. He had heard that a woman loves best the taming of a dangerous man, and he whistled

and sang and smiled until the dust of the coming herd met him full. Since he felt perfectly sure of the result,

he hoped that Florence Grace Hallman would start something, just so that he might show Miss Allen how

potent was her influence over a bad, bad man who still has virtues worth nurturing carefully.

Weary, riding point on the loitering herd, grinned a wordless greeting. Andy passed with a casual wave of his

hand and took his place on the left flank. From his face Weary guessed that all was well with the claims, and

the assurance served to lighten his spirits. Soon he heard Andy singing at the top of his voice, and his own

thoughts fell into accord with the words of the ditty. He began to sing also, whenever he knew the words.

Farther back, Pink took it up, and then the others joined in, until all unconsciously they had turned the

"They're a little bit rough I must confess, the most of them at least," prompted Andy, starting on the second

verse alone because the others didn't know the song as well as he. He waited a second for them to join him,

"Say, Weary! They tell me Florence Grace is sure hittin' the warpost! Ain't yuh scared?"

Weary shook his head and rode forward to ease the leaders into a narrow gulch that would cut off a mile or so

"Taking 'em up One Man?" called Pink, and got a nod for answer. There was a lull in the singing while they

shouted and swore at these stubborn cows who would have tried to break back on the way to a clover patch,

until the gulch broadened into an arm of One Man Coulee itself. It was all peaceful and easy and just as they

had planned. The morning was cool and the cattle contented. They were nearing their claims, and all that

would remain for them to do was the holding of their herd upon the appointed grazing ground. So would the

requirements of the law be fulfilled and the machinations of the Syndicate be thwarted and the land saved to

And then the leaders, climbing the hill at a point half a mile below Andy's cabin, balked, snorted and swung

back. Weary spurred up to push them forward, and so did Andy and Pink. They rode up over the ridge

shouting and urging the reluctant cattle ahead, and came plump into the very dooryard of a brand new shack.

A man was standing in the doorway watching the disturbance his presence had created; when he saw the

The three came to a stop before him, too astonished to do more than stare. Once past the fancied menace of

the new building and the man, the cattle went trotting awkwardly across the level, their calves galloping

"Me? I'm holding down a claim. What are you doing?" The man did not seem antagonistic or friendly or even

neutral toward them. He seemed to be waiting. He eyed the cattle that kept coming, urged on by those who

shouted at them in the coulee below. He watched them spread out and go trotting away after the leaders.

"Say, when did yuh take this claim?" Andy leaned negligently forward and looked at him curiously.

"I just wondered. I took it up myself, four weeks ago. Four forties I've got, strung out in a line that runs from

here to yonder. You've got over on my landby mistake, of course. I just thought I'd tell yuh he added

"Thanks." The man smiled onesidedly and began filling a pipe while he watched them.

"Acourse it won't be much trouble to move your shack," Andy continued with neighborly interest. "A

wheelbarrow will take it, easy. Back here on the bench a mile or so, yuh may find a patch of ground that

"Thanks." The man picked a match from his pocket and striking it on the new yellow doorcasing lighted his

Andy moved uneasily. He did not like that man, for all he appeared so thankful for information. The fellow

had a narrow forehead and broad, high cheek bones and a predatory nose. His eyes were the wrong shade of

blue and the lids drooped too much at the outer corners. Andy studied him curiously. Did the man know what

he was up against, or did he not? Was he sincere in his ready thanks, or was he sarcastic? The man looked up

at him then. His eyes were clean of any hidden meaning, but they were the wrong shade of bluethe shade

"Seems like there's been quite a crop of shacks grown up since I rode over this way," Weary announced

suddenly, returning from a brief scurry after the leaders, that inclined too much toward the south in their

"Well, by golly!" bellowed Slim, popping up from below on a heaving horse. Slim was getting fatter every

year, and his horses always puffed when they climbed a hill under his weight. His round eyes glared

resentfully at the man and the shack and at the three who were sitting there so quietly on their horsesjust as

if they had ridden up for a friendly call. "Ain't this shack on your land?" he spluttered to Andy.

"Why, yes. It is, just right at present." Andy admitted, following the man's example in the matter of a smoke,

except that Andy rolled and lighted a cigarette. "He's going to move it, though."

"Say, you needn't thank ME," Andy protested in his polite tone. "YOU'RE going to move it, you know."

"Oh, that's all right. You may not know right now, but don't let that worry yuh. This is sure a great country

Big Medicine came up over the hill a hundred feet or so from them; goggled a minute at the bold trespass and

came loping across the intervening space. "Say, by cripes, what's this mean?" he bawled. "Claimjumper,

hey? Say, young feller, do you realize what you're doingsquattin' down on another man's land. Don't yuh

"Oh, cut out all that rough stuff!" advised the man wearily. "I know who you are, and what your bluff is

worth. I know you can't held a foot of land if anybody is a mind to contest your claims. I've filed a contest on

this eighty, here, and I'm going to hold it. Let that soak into your minds. I don't want any troubleI'm even

willing to take a good deal in the way of bluster, rather than have trouble. But I'm going to stay. See?" He

waved his pipe in a gesture of finality and continued to smoke and to watch them impersonally, leaning

against the door in that lounging negligence which is so irritating to a disputant.

"Oh, all rightif that's the way you feel about it," Andy replied indifferently, and turned away. "Come on,

He rode away with his face turned over his shoulder to see if the others were going to follow. When he was

past the corner and therefore out of the man's sight, he raised his arm and beckoned to them imperatively,

with a jerk of his head to add insistence. The four of them looked after him uncertainly. Weary kicked his

horse and started, then Pink did the same. Andy beckoned again, more emphatically than before, and Big

Medicine, who loved a fight as he loved to win a jackpot, turned and glared at the man in the doorway as be

"Pink, you go on back and put the boys next, when they come up with the drag they won't do anything much

but hand out a few remarks and ride on." Andy said, in the tone of one who knows exactly what he means to

do. "This is my claimjumper. Chances are I've got three more to handleor will have. Nothing like starting

off right. Tell the boys just rag the fellow a little and ride on, like we did. Get the cattle up here and set Happy

"You wouldn't tell for a dollar, would yuh?" Pi asked him with his dimples showing.

"I've got to think it out first," Andy evaded. feel all the symptoms of an idea. You let me alone a while."

"Say, yuh going to tell him he's been found out and yuh know his past," began Slim, "like yuh done Dunk?

"Go on off and lay down!" Andy retorted pettishly. "I never worked the same one off on you twice, did I?

Think I'm getting feebleminded? It ain't hard to put his nibs on the runthat's dead easy. Trouble is I went

"Mamma!" muttered Weary, his sunny eyes taking in the shack dotted horizon. "Mild!and all these

"Oh, wellthere's more'n one way to kill a cat," Andy reminded them cheerfully. "You go on back and post

He galloped off and left them to say and think what they pleased. He was not uneasy over their following his

advice or waiting for his plan. For Andy Green had risen rapidly to a tacit leadership, since first he told them

of the coming colony. From being the official Ananias of the outfit, king of all jokemakers, chief irritator of

the bunch, whose lightest word was suspected of hiding some deep meaning and whose most innocent action

was analysed, he had come to the point where they listened to him and depended upon him to see a way out

of every difficulty. They would depend upon him now; of that he was suretherefore they would wait for

Strange as it may seem, the Happy Family had not seriously considered the possibility of having their claims

"jumped" so long as they kept valid their legal residence. They had thought that they would be watched and

accused of collusion with the Flying U, and they intended to be extremely careful. They meant to stay upon

their claims at least seven months in the year, which the law required. They meant to have every blade of

grass eaten by their own cattle, which would be counted as improving their claims. They meant to give a

homelike air of permanency to their dwellings. They had already talked over a tentative plan of bringing

water to their desert claims, and had ridden over the benchland for two days, with the plat at hand for

reference, that they might be sure of choosing their claims wisely. They had prepared for every contingency

save the one that had arisen which is a common experience with us all. They had not expected that their

claims would be jumped and contests filed so early in the game, as long as they maintained their residence.

However, Andy was not dismayed at the turn of events. It was stimulating to the imagination to be brought

face to face with an emergency such as this, and to feel that one must handle it with strength and diplomacy

He looked across the waving grass to where the four roomed shack was built upon the four corners of four

"eighties" so that four women might live together and yet be said to live upon their own claims. That was

drawing the line pretty fine, of course; finer than the Happy Family would have dared to draw it. But no one

would raise any objection, on account of their being women and timid about living alone. Andy smiled

sympathetically because the four conjunctive corners of the four claims happened to lie upon a bald pinnacle

bare of grass or shelter or water, even. The shack stood bleakly revealed to the four windsbut also it over

looked the benchland and the rolling, halfbarren land to the west, which comprised Antelope Coulee and

Dry Coulee and several other goodfornothing coulees capable of supporting nothing but coyotes and

A mile that way Andy rode, and stopped upon the steep side of a gulch which was an arm of Antelope

Coulee. He looked down into the gulch, searched with his eyes for the stake that marked the southeast corner

of the eighty lying off in this direction from the shack, and finally saw it fifty yards away on a bald patch of

He resisted the temptation to ride over and call upon Miss Allenthe resistance made easier by the hour,

which was eight o'clock or thereaboutsand rode back to the others very well satisfied with himself and his

He found the whole Happy Family gathered upon the level land just over his west line, extolling resentment

while they waited his coming. Grinning, he told them his plan, and set them grinning also. He gave them

certain work to be done, and watched them scatter to do his bidding. Then he turned and rode away upon

The claimjumper, watching the bench land through a pair of field glasses, saw a herd of cows and calves

scattered and feeding contentedly upon the young grass a mile or so away. Two men on horseback loitered

upon the outer fringe of the herd. From a distance hilltop came the staccato sound of hammers where an other

shack was going up. Cloud shadows slid silently over the land, with bright sunlight chasing after. Of the other

horsemen who had come up the bluff with the cattle, he saw not a sign. So the man yawned and went in to his

Many times that day he stood at the corner of his shack with the glasses sweeping the benchland. Toward

noon the cattle drifted into a coulee where there was water. In a couple of hours they drifted leisurely back

upon high ground and scattered to their feeding, still watched and tended by the two horsemen who looked

the most harmless of individuals. One was fat and redfaced and spent at least half of his time lying prone

upon some slope in the shade of his horse. The other was thin and awkward, and slouched in the saddle or sat

upon the ground with his knees drawn up and his arms clasped loosely around them, a cigarette dangling

There was nothing whatever to indicate that events were breeding in that peaceful scene, and that adventure

was creeping close upon the watcher. He went in from his fourth or fifth inspection, and took a nap.

That night he was awakened by a pounding on the side of the shack where was his window. By the time he

had reached the middle of the floorand you could count the time in seconds a similar pounding was at

the door. He tried to open the door and couldn't. He went to the window and could see nothing, although the

night had not been dark when he went to bed. He shouted, and there was no reply; nor could he hear any

talking without. His name, by the way, was H. J. Owens, though his name does not matter except for

convenience in mentioning him. Owens, then, lighted a lamp, and almost instantly was forced to reach out

quickly and save it from toppling, because one corner of the shack was lifting, lifting . . .

Outside, the Happy Family worked in silence. Before they had left One Man Coulee they had known exactly

what they were to do, and how to do it. They knew who was to nail the hastily constructed shutter over the

window. They knew who was to fasten the door so that it could not be opened from within. They knew also

There were twelve of thembecause Bert Rogers had insisted upon helping. In not many more minutes than

there were men, they were in their saddles, ready to start. The shack lurched forward after the straining

horses. Once it was fairly started it moved more easily than you might think it could do, upon crude runners

made of cottonwood logs eight inches or so in diameter and long enough for cross pieces bolted in front and

rear. The horses pulled it easily with the ropes tied to the saddlehorns, just as they had many times pulled

the roundup wagons across mirey creeks or up steep slopes; just as they had many times pulled stubborn

cattle or dead cattlejust as they had been trained to pull anything and everything their masters chose to

Within, Owens called to them and cursed them. When they had just gained an even pace, he emptied his

revolver through the four sides of the shack. But he did not know where they were, exactly, so that he was

compelled to shoot at random. And since the five shots seemed to have no effect whatever upon the steady

progress of the shack, he decided to wait until he could see where to aim. There was no use, he reflected, in

wasting good ammunition when there was a strong probability that he would need it later.

After a half hour or more of continuous travel, the shack tilted on a steep descent. H. J. Owens blew out his

lamp and swore when a box came sliding against his shins in the dark. The descent continued until it was

stopped with a jolt that made him bite his tongue painfully, so that tears came into the eyes that were the

wrong shade of blue to please Andy Green. He heard a laugh cut short and a muttered command, and that was

all. The shack heaved, toppled, righted itself and went on down, and down, and down; jerked sidewise to the

left, went forward and then swung joltingly the other way. When finally it came to a permanent stand it was

Then the four corners heaved upward, two at a time, and settled with a final squeal of twisted boards and

nails. There was a sound of confused trampling, and after that the lessening sounds of departure. Mr. Owens

tried the door again, and found it still fast. He relighted the lamp, carried it to the window and looked upon

rough boards outside the glass. He meditated anxiously and decided to remain quiet until daylight.

The Happy Family worked hard, that night. Before daylight they were in their beds and snoring except the

two who guarded the cattle. Each was in his own cabin. His horse was in his corral, smoothcoated and dry.

There was nothing to tell of the night's happenings,nothing except the satisfied grins on their faces when

"Say! have they got down the hill yet, Pink;" Pink took his cigarette from his fingers, leaned and peered

Whereupon Andy Green, ostentatiously washing his breakfast dishes, skipped two or three verses and lifted

"Got her yet?" And he craned his neck to look. "Aw, they've pulled up, out there, listening!"

"Why don't yuh stop that caterwauling?" Pink demanded fretfully. "You'll queer the whole play if you keep it

There was sense in that. Andy finished the line about remaining two happy lovers in his little old sod shanty,

and went to the door with the dishpan. He threw out the water, squeezed the dishrag in one hand and gave the

inside of the pan a swipe before he appeared to discover that Miss Allen and Florence Grace Hallman were

riding up to his door. As a matter of fact, he had seen them come over the top of the bluff and had long ago

He met them with a smile of surprised innocence, and invited them inside. They refused to come, and even

Miss Allen showed a certain reproachful coolness toward him. Andy felt hurt at that, but he did not manifest

the fact. Instead he informed them that it was a fine morning. And were they out taking a look around?

They were. They were looking up the men who had perpetrated the outrage last night upon four settlers.

"Outrage?" Andy tilted the dishpan against the cabin wall, draped the dishrag over the handle and went

forward, pulling down his sleeves. "What outrage is that, Miss Hallman? Anybody killed?"

Miss Hallman watched him with her narrowed glance. She saw the quick glance he gave Miss Allen, and her

lids narrowed still more. So that was it! But she did not swerve from her purpose, for all this unexpected

"You know that no one was killed. But you damaged enough property to place you on the wrong side of the

law, Mr. Green. Not one of those shacks can be gotten out of the gulch except in pieces!"

Andy smiled inside his soul, but his face was bewildered; his eyes fixed themselves blankly upon her face.

"Me? Damaging property? Miss Hallman, you don't know me yet! "Which was perfectly true. "What shacks

are you talking about? In what gulch? All the shacks I've seen so far have been stuck up on bald pinnacles

where the blizzards will hit 'em coming and going next winter." He glanced again at Miss Allen with a certain

sympathetic foretaste of what she would suffer next winter if she stayed in her shack.

"Don't try to play innocent, Mr. Green." Florence Grace Hallman drew her brows together. "We all know

"Don't you mean that you think you know? I'm afraid you've kinda taken it for granted I'd be mixed up in any

deviltry you happened to hear about. I've got in bad with youI know thatbut just the same, I hate to be

accused of everything that takes place in the country. All this is sure interesting news to me. Whereabouts

was they taken from? And when, and where to? Miss Allen, you'll tell me the straight of this, won't you? And

Miss Allen puckered her lips into a pout which meant indecision, and glanced at Florence Grace Hallman.

And Miss Hallman frowned at being shunted into the background and referred to as she, and set her teeth into

"Miss Allen prefers to choose her own company," she said with distinct rudeness. "Don't try to wheedle

heryou can't do it. And you needn't get your horse to ride anywhere with us, Mr. Green. It's useless. I just

wanted to warn you that nothing like what happened last night will be tolerated. We know all about you

Flying U menyou Happy Family." She said it as if she were calling them something perfectly disgraceful.

"You may be just as tough and bad a you please you can't frighten anyone into leaving the country or into

giving up one iota of their rights. I came to you because you are undoubtedly the ringleader of the gang."

She accented gang. "You ought to be shot for what you did last night. And if you keep on" She left the

"Well, if settling up the country means that men are going to be shot for going to bed at dark and asleeping

till sunup, all I've got to say is that things ain't like they used to be. We were all plumb peaceful here till

your colony came, Miss Hallman. Why, the sheriff never got out this way often enough to know the trails! He

always had to ask his way around. If your bunch of town mutts can't behave themselves and leave each other

alone, I don't know what's to be done about it. We ain't hired to keep the peace."

"No, you've been hired to steal all the land you can and make all the trouble you can. We understand that

Andy shook his head in meek denial, and with a sudden impulse turned toward the cabin. "Oh, Pink!" he

called, and brought that boyishfaced young man to the door, his eyes as wide and as pure as the eyes of a

Pink lifted his hat with just the proper degree of confusion to impress the girls with his bashfulness and his

awe of their presence. His eyes were the same pansypurple as when the Flying U first made tumultuous

acquaintance with him. His apparent innocence had completely fooled the Happy Family, you will remember.

They had called him Mamma's Little Lamb and had composed poetry and horrific personal history for his

benefit. The few years had not changed him. His hair was still yellow and curly. The dimples still dodged into

his cheeks unexpectedly; he was still much like a stick of dynamite wrapped in white tissue and tied with a

Andy introduced him, and Pink bowed and had all the appearance of blushingthough you will have to ask

Pink how he managed to create that optical illusion. "What did you want?" he asked in his soft, girlish voice,

turning to Andy bashfully. But from the corner of his eye Pink saw that a little smile of remembrance had

come to soften Miss Hallman's angry features, and that the other girl was smiling also. Pink hated that

attitude of pleasant patronage which women were so apt to take toward him, but for the present it suited his

"Pink, what time was it when we went to bed last night?" Andy asked him in the tone of one who wished to

"Whyit was pretty early. We didn't light the lamp at all, you remember. You went to bed before I didwe

couldn't see the cards" He stopped confusedly, and again he gave the two women the impression that he

blushed. "We weren't playing for money," he hurriedly explained. "Just for pastime. It's pretty

"Somebody did something to somebody last night," Andy informed Pink with a resentful impatience. "Miss

Hallman thinks we're the guilty partiesme in particular, because she don't like me. It's something about

some shacksdamaging property, she called it. Just what was it you said was done, Miss Hallman?" He

Miss Hallman bit her lip. She had been perfectly sure of the guilt of Andy Green, and of the others who were

his friends. Now, in spite of all reason she was not so sure. And there had been nothing more tangible than

two pairs of innocent looking eyes and the irreproachable manners of two men to change her conviction.

"Well, I naturally took it for granted that you did it," she weakened. "The shacks were moved off eighties that

you have filed upon, Mr. Green. Mr. Owens told me this morning that you men came by his place and

threatened him yesterday, and ordered him to move. No one else would have any object in molesting him or

the others." Her voice hardened again as her mind dwelt upon the circumstances. "It must have been you!"

Whereupon Pink gave her a distressed look that made Miss Hallman flush unmistakably. "I'm just about

distracted, this morning," she apologized. "I took it upon myself to see these settlers throughand everybody

makes it just as hard as possible for me. Why should all you fellows treat us the way you do? We"

"Why, we aren't doing a thing!" Pink protested diffidently. "We thought we'd take up some claims and go to

ranching for ourselves, when we got discharged from the Flying U. We didn't mean any harmeverybody's

taking up claims. We've bought some cattle and we're going to try and get ahead, like other folks. WeI

"Are those your cattle up on the hill? Some men shipped in four carloads of young stock, yesterday, to Dry

Lake. They drove them out here intending to turn them on the range, and a couple of men"

"Some men refused to let them cross that big coulee back there. They drove the cattle back toward Dry Lake,

and told Mr. Simmons and Mr. Chase and some others that they shouldn't come on this bench back here at

"Your men shot, and shot, and shotthe atmosphere up there is shot so full of holes that the wind just

whistles through!" Miss Allen informed then gravely, with her eyebrows all puckered together and the furtive

little twinkle in her eyes. "And they yelled so that we could hear them from the house! They made those poor

cows and those poor, weenty calves just go trotting back across the coulee. My new book on farming says

you positively must not hurry cattle. Itoh, it does something to the butterfatjoggles it all up or

somethingI'll lend you the book. I found the chapter on Proper Treatment of Dairy Stock, and I watched

those men with the book in my hands. Why, it was terribly unscientific, the way they drove those

"I'll come over and get the book," Andy promised her, with a look in his eyes that displeased Miss Hallman

very much. "We're ashamed of our ignorance. We'd like to have you learn us what's in the book."

"Oh, andwhat's going to be done about all those bullet holes? Theythey might create a draught"

"We'll ride around that way and plug 'em up," Andy assured her solemnly. "Whenever you've got time to

"It will be a pleasure. I can tell where they are, but they're too high for me to reach. Wherever the wind

whistles there's a hole in the atmosphere. And there are places where the air just quivers, so you can see it.

That is the shock those bold, bad men gave it with the words they used. They usedwords, Mr. Green! If

we could scheme some way to pull out all those wrinklesI do love a nice, clean, smooth atmosphere where

Miss Hallman decided that she had nothing further to say to Mr. Green. She wheeled her horse rather

abruptly and rode off with a curt goodbye. Miss Allen, being new at the business of handling a horse, took

more time in pulling her mount around. While her back was turned to Florence Grace and her face was turned

toward Pink and Andy, she gave them a twinkling glance that had one lowered eyelid to it, twisted her lips,

and spoke sharply to her horse. They might make of it what they would. Florence Grace looked back

impatientlyperhaps suspiciously alsoand saw Miss Allen coming on with docile haste.

So that ended the interview which Miss Hallman had meant to be so impressive. A lot of nonsense that left a

laugh behind and the idea that Miss Allen at least did not disapprove of harassing claimjumpers. Andy

Green was two hundred per cent. more cheerful after that, and his brain was more active and his

"She winked at usif I've got eyes in my head. What do you reckon she meant, Pink?" he asked when the

two riders had climbed over the ridge. "And what she said about the bold, bad men shooting holes that have

to be plugged upand about liking a nice, smooth atmosphere? Do you suppose she meant that it's liable to

"What difference does it make what she meant? There's jumpers lefttwo on Bud's placeand he's

oaryeyed over it, and was going to read 'em the riot act proper, when I left to come over here. And a couple

of men drove onto that south eighty of Mig's with a load of lumber, just as I come by. Looks to me like we've

got our hands full, Andy. There'll be holes to plug up somewhere besides in the atmosphere, if you ask me."

"Long as they don't get anything on us I ain't in the state of mind where I give a darn. That little browneyed

Susan'll keep us posted if they start anything newwhat did she mean by that wink, do you reckon?"

"Ah, don't get softening of the emotions," Pink advised impatiently. "That's the worst thing we've got to steer

clear of, Andy! All them women in the game is going to make it four times as hard to stand 'em off. Irish is

foolish over this one you're gettin' stuck onyou'll be fighting each other, if you don't look out. That

Florence Grace lady ain't so slowshe's going to use the women to keep us fellows guessing.

Andy sighed. "We can block that play, of course," he said. "Come on, Pink. let's go round up the boys and see

what's been taking place with them cattle. Shipped in four carloads already, have they?" He began pulling on

his chaps rather hurriedly. "Worst of it is, you can't stampede a bunch of darned tame cows, either," he

They found Irish and the Native Son on dayherd, with the cattle scattered well along the western line of the

claims. Big Medicine, Weary, Cal Emmett and Jack Bates were just returning from driving the settlers' stock

well across Antelope Coulee which had been decided upon as a hypothetical boundary line until such time as

They talked with the dayherders, and they talked with the other four. Chip came up from the ranch with the

Kid riding proudly beside him on Silver, and told them that the Honorable Mr. Blake was at the Flying U and

had sent word that he would be pleased to take the legal end of the fight, if the Happy Family so desired.

Which was in itself a vast encouragement. The Honorable Blake had said that they were well within their

rights thus far, and advised them to permit service of the contest notices, and to go calmly on fulfilling the

law. Which was all very well as far as it went, providing they were permitted to go on calmly.

"What about them cattle they're trying to git across our land?" Slim wanted to know. "We got a right to keep

Chip said that he thought they had, but to make sure, he would ask the Honorable Blake. Trespassing, he said,

Right there Andy was seized with an idea. He took Chip because of his artistic talents which, he said, had

been plumb wasted latelyto one side. After wards they departed in haste, with Pink and Weary galloping

close at their heels. In a couple of hours they returned to the boundary where the cattle still fed all scattered

out in a long line, and behind them drove Pink and Weary in the one wagon which the Family possessed.

"It oughta help some," grinned Andy, when the Native Son came curiously over to see what it was they were

erecting there on the prairie. "It's a fair warning, and shows 'em where to head in at."

The Native Son read the sign, which was three feet long and stood nailed to two posts ready for planting

solidly in the earth. He showed his even, white teeth in a smile of approval. "Back it up, and it ought to do

They dug holes and set the posts, and drove on to where they meant to plant another sign exactly like the first.

That day they planted twelve signboards along their west line. They might not do any good, but they were a

That afternoon Andy was riding back along the line when he saw a rider pull up at the first sign and read it

carefully. He galloped in haste to the spot and found that his suspicions were correct; it was Miss Allen.

"Well," she said when he came near, "I suppose that means me. Does it?" She pointed to the sign, which read

WARNING ! ! N0 TRESPASSING EAST OF HERE All Shacks, LiveStock and Pilgrims Promptly AND

"I'm over the line," she notified him, pulling her horse backward a few feet. "You're getting awfully

particular, seems to me. Oh, did you know that a lot of men are going to play it's New Year's Eve and hold

"That's not strangeseeing it's a surprise party. StillI'm sure you are expected toattend."

"And where is all this to take place?" Andy looked at her intently, smiling a little.

"Oh, over thereand thereand there." She pointed to three new shacksthe official dwellings of certain

contestants." Stag parties, they are, I believe. But I doubt if they'll have any very exciting time; most of these

new settlers are too busy getting the ground ready for crops, to go to parties. Some people are pretty

disgusted, I can tell you, Mr. Green. Some people talk about ingratitude and wonder why the colony doesn't

hang together better. Some people even wonder why it is that folks are interested mainly in their own affairs,

and decline to attend watch meetings and receptions. So I'm afraid very few, except your nearest

neighbors, will be present, after all might I ask when you expect toto MOVE again, Mr. Green?"

Smiling still, Andy shook his head. "I expect to be pretty busy this spring," he told her evasively. "Aren't any

Not a one. But let me tell you something, Mr. Green. Some folks think that perhaps we ladysettlers ought to

organize a club for the well being of our intellects. Some folks are trying to get up parties just for

"Oh." Andy studied the possibilities of such a move. If Florence Grace should set the women after them, he

could see how the Happy Family would be hampered at every turn. "Well, I must be going. Say, did you

know this country is full of wild animals, Miss Allen? They prowl around nights. And there's a gang of wild

men that hang out up there in those mountainsthey prowl around nights, too. They're outlaws. They kill off

every sheriff's party that tries to round them up, and they kidnap children and ladies. If you should hear any

disturbance, any time, don't be scared. Just stay inside after dark and keep your door locked. And if you

should organize that ladies' club, you better hold your meetings in the afternoon, don't you think?"

When he had ridden on and left her, Andy was somewhat ashamed of such puerile falsehoods. But then, she

had started the allegorical method of imparting advice, he remembered. So presently went whistling to round

Big Medicine with Weary and Chip to bear him company, rode up to the shack nearest his own, which had

been hastily built by a rawboned Dane who might be called truly Americanized. Big Medicine did not waste

time in superfluities or in making threats of what he meant to do. He called the Dane to the

doorclaimjumpers were keeping close to their cabins, these daysand told him that he was on another

"Sure I don't intend to move!" retorted the Dane with praiseworthy promptness. "I'm going to hold 'er down

"Yuh hear what says, boys." Big Medicine turned to his companions "He ain't going to git off'n my land, he

Weary immediately departed. He was not gone so very long, and when he returned the Happy Family was

with him, even to Patsy who drove the wagon with all the ease of a veteran of many roundups. The Dane tried

bluster, but that did not seem to work. Nothing seemed to work, except the Happy Family.

There in broad daylight, with no more words than were needful, they moved the Dane, and his shack. When

they began to raise the building he was so unwise as to flourish a gun, and thereby made it perfectly right and

lawful that Big Medicine should take the gun away from him and march him ahead of his own fortyfive.

They took the shack directly past one of the trespassing signs, and Big Medicine stopped accommodatingly

while the Dane was permitted to read the sign three times aloud. That the Dane did not seem truly

appreciative of the privilege was no fault of Big Medicine's, surely. They went on, skidding the little building

sledlike over the uneven prairie. They took it down into Antelope Coulee and left it there, right side up and

"There, darn yuh, live there awhile!" Andy gritted to when the timbers were withdrawn from beneath the

cabin and they were ready to leave. "You can't say we damaged your propertythis time. Come back, and

Since Big Medicine kept his gun, the Dane could do nothing but swear while he watched them ride up the hill

They made straight for the next interloper, remarking frequently that it was much simpler and easier to do

their moving in daylight. There they had an audience, for Florence Grace rode furiously up just as they were

getting under way. The Happy Family spoke very nicely to Florence Grace, and when she spoke very sharply

Several settlers came before that shack was moved, but they only stood around and talked among themselves,

and were careful not to get in the way or to hinder, and to lower their voices so that the Happy Family need

So they slid that shack into the coulee, righted it carefully and left it therewhere it would be exceedingly

difficult to get it out, by the way; since it is much easier to drag a building down hill than up, and the steeper

They loaded the timbers into the wagon and methodically on to the next shack, their audience increased to a

couple of dozen perturbed settlers. The owner of this particular shack, feeling the strength of numbers behind

"Oh, you'll sweat for this!" he shouted impotently when the Happy Family was placing the timbers.

"Ah, git outa the way!" said Andy, coming toward him with a crowbar. "We're sweating now, if that makes

The man got out of the way, and went and stood with the group of onlookers, and talked vaguely of having

By the time they had placed the third shack in the bottom of the coulee, the sun was setting. They dragged the

timbers up the steep bluff with their ropes and their saddlehorses, loaded them on to the wagon and threw

the crowbars and rolling timbers in, and turned to look curiously and unashamed at their audience. Andy, still

"That'll be all today," he announced politely. "Except that load of lumber back here on the bench where it

don't belong we aim to haul that over the line. Seeing your considerable interest in our affairs, I'll just say

that we filed on our claims according to law, and we're living on 'em according to law. Till somebody proves

in court that we're not, there don't any shack, or any stock, stay on our side the line any longer than it takes to

get them off. There's the signs, folksread 'em and take 'em to heart. You can go home now. The show's

He lifted his hat to the womenand there were several now and went away to join his fellows, who had

ridden on slowly till he might overtake them. He found Happy Jack grumbling and predicting evil, as it was

his nature to do, but he merely straightened his aching back and laughed at the prophecies.

"As I told you before, there's more than one way to kill a cat," he asserted tritely but never the less

impressively. "Nobody can say we wasn't mild; and nobody can say we hadn't a right to get those

chickencoops off our land. If you ask me, Florence Grace will have to go some now if she gets the best of the

deal. She overlooked a bet. We haven't been served with any contest notices yet, and so we ain't obliged to

take their sayso. Who's going to stand guard tonight? We've got to stand our regular shifts, if we want to

keep ahead of the game. I'm willing to be It. I'd like to make sure they don't slip any stock across before

"Say, it's lucky we've got a bunch of boneheads like them to handle," Pink observed thankfully. Would a

bunch of natives have stood around like that with their hands in their pockets and let us get away with the

"What we'd better do," cut in the Native Son without any misleading drawl, "is try and rustle enough money

"We don't go to the Old Man for so much as a bacon rind!" cried the Native Son impatiently. "Get it into your

systems, boys, that we've got to ride away around the Flying U. We ought to be able to build that fence, all

right, without help from anybody. Till we do we've got to hang and rattle, and keep that nester stock from

A little more talk, and some bickering with Slim and Happy Jack, the two chronic kickers, served to knock

together a fair working organization. Weary and Andy Green were informally chosen joint leaders, because

Weary could be depended upon to furnish the mental ballast for Andy's imagination. Patsy was told that he

would have to cook for the outfit, since he was too fat to ride. They suggested that he begin at, once, by

knocking together some sort of supper. Moving houses, they declared, was work. They frankly hoped that

they would not have to move many moreand they were very positive that they would not be compelled to

"Say, we'll have quite a collection of shacks down in Antelope Coulee if we keep on," Jack Bates reminded

"Where's the rest of them going to get water?" Cal Emmett challenged the crowd. "There's that spring the

four women up here pack water frombut that goes dry in August. And there's the creekthat goes dry too.

Irish made an uncivil retort and swung suddenly away from the group. "I'm going to ride into town, boys," he

"Maybe you will and maybe you won't," Weary amended somewhat impatiently. "This is certainly a poor

time for Irish to break out," he added, watching his double go galloping toward the town road.

"I betche he comes back full and tries to clean out all them nesters," Happy Jack predicted. For once no one

tried to combat his pessimismfor that was exactly what every one of them believed would happen.

"He's stayed sober a long whilefor him," sighed Weary, who never could quite shake off a sense of

responsibility for the moral defections of his kinsman. "Maybe I better go along and ride herd on him." Still,

As is often the case with a family's black sheep, his intentions were the best, even though they might have

been considered unorthodox. While the Happy Family took it for granted that he was gone because an old

thirst awoke within him, Irish was thinking only of the welfare of the outfit. He did not tell them, because he

was the sort who does not prattle of his intentions, one way or the other. If he did what he meant to do there

Irish had thought a good deal about the building of that fence, and about the problem of paying for enough

wire and posts to run the fence straight through from Meeker's south line to the north line of the Flying U. He

had figured the price of posts and the price of wire and had come somewhere near the approximate cost of the

undertaking. He was not at all sure that the Happy Family had faced the actual figures on that proposition.

They had remarked vaguely that it was going to cost some money. They had made casual remarks about

Irish was hotheaded and impulsive to a degree. He was given to occasional tumultuous sprees, during which

he was to be handled with extreme careor, better still, left entirely alone until the spell was over. He looked

almost exactly like Weary, and yet he was almost his opposite in disposition. Weary was optimistic,

peaceloving, steady as the sun above him except for a little surfacebubbling of fun that kept him sunny

through storm and calm. You could walk all over Weary figuratively speakingbefore he would show

resentment. You could not step very close to Irish without running the risk of consequences. That he should,

under all that, have a streak of calculating, hardheaded business sense, did not occur to them.

They rode on, discussing the present situation and how best to meet it; the contingencies of the future, and

how best to circumvent the active antagonism of Florence Grace Hallman and the colony for which she stood

sponsor. They did not dream that Irish was giving his whole mind to solving the problem of raising money to

Some of you at least are going to object to his method. Some of youthose of you who live west of the big

riverare going to understand his point of view, and you will recognize his method as being perfectly

logical, simple, and altogether natural to a man of his temperament and manner of life. It is for you that I am

going to relate his experiences. Sheltered readers, readers who have never faced life in the raw, readers who

sit down on Sunday mornings with a mind purged of worldly thoughts and commit to memory a "golden text"

which they forget before another Sunday morning, should skip the rest of this chapter for the good of their

morals. The rest is for you men who have kicked up alkali dust and afterwards washed out the memory in

town; who have gone broke between starlight and sun; who know the ways of punchers the West over, and

Irish had been easing down a corner of the last shack, with his back turned toward three men who stood

looking on with the detached interest which proved they did not own this particular shack. One was H. J.

OwensI don't think you have met the others. Irish had not. He had overheard this scrap of conversation

"Guess soI sure ain't going to hang out on this prairie any more than I have to. You going?"

"YeesI think I will. I hear there's been some pretty swift games going, the last night or two. A fellow in

"That so. let's go on in. This claimholding gets my goat anyway. I don't see where"

Had he turned in time to catch the wink that one speaker gave to the other, and the sardonic grin that

answered the lowered eyelid, he would have had the scrap of conversation properly focused in his mind, and

would not have swallowed the bait as greedily as he did. But we all make mistakes. Irish made the mistake of

So here he was, kicking up the dust on the town trail just as those three intended that he should do. But that

he rode alone instead of in the midst of his fellows was not what the three had intended; and that he rode with

the interest of his friends foremost in his mind was also an unforeseen element in the scheme.

Irish did not see H. J. Owens anywhere in townnor did he see either of the two men who had stood behind

him. But there was a poker game running in Rusty Brown's back room, and Irish immediately sat in without

further investigation. Bert Rogers was standing behind one of the players, and gave Irish a nod and a wink

which may have had many meanings. Irish interpreted it as encouragement to sail in and clean up the bunch.

There was money enough in sight to build that fence when he sat down. Irish pulled his hat farther over his

eyebrows, rolled and lighted a cigarette while he waited for that particular jackpot to be taken, and covertly

Every one of them was strange to him. But then, the town was full of strangers since Florence Grace and her

Syndicate began to reap a harvest off the open country, so Irish merely studied the faces casually, as a matter

of habit They were nesters, of coursereal or prospective. They seemed to have plenty of moneyand it

was eminently fitting that the Happy Family's fence should be built with nester money.

Irish had in his pockets exactly eighteen dollars and fifty cents. He bought eighteen dollars' worth of chips

and began to play. Privately he preferred stud poker to draw, but he was not going to propose a change; he

Four hands he played and lost four dollars. He drank a glass of beer then, made himself another cigarette and

settled down to business, feeling that he had but just begun. After the fifth hand he looked up and caught

again the eye of Bert Rogers. Bert pulled his eyebrows together in a warning look, and Irish thought better of

staying that hand. He did not look at Bert after that, but he did watch the other players more closely.

After awhile Bert wandered away, his interest dulling when he saw that Irish was holding his own and a little

better. Irish played on, conservative to such a degree that in two hours he had not won more than fifteen

dollars. The Happy Family would have been surprised to see him lay down kings and refuse to draw to them

which he did once, with a gesture of disgust that flipped them face up so that all could see. He turned them

over immediately, but the three had seen that this tall stranger, who had all the earmarks of a cowpuncher,

So they played until the crowd thinned; until Irish, by betting safely and sticking to a caution that must have

cost him a good deal in the way of selfrestraint, had sixty dollars' worth of chips piled in front of him.

Some men, playing for a definite purpose, would have quit at that. Irish did not quit, however. He wanted a

certain sum from these nesters. He had come to town expecting to win a certain sum from them. He intended

to play until he got it or went broke. He was not using any trickeryand he had stopped one man in the

middle of a deal, with a certain look in his eye remarking that he'd rather have the top card than the bottom

There came a deal when Irish looked at his cards, sent a slanting look at the others and laid down his five

cards with a long breath. He raised the ante four blue ones and rolled and lit a cigarette while the three had

drawn what cards they thought they needed. The man at Irish's left had drawn only one card. Now he

hesitated and then bet with some assurance. Irish smoked imperturbably while the other two came in, and

then he raised the bet three stacks of blues. His neighbor raised him one stack, and the next man hesitated and

then laid down his cards. The third man meditated for a minute and raised the bet ten dollars. Irish blew forth

There was a silent minute, wherein Irish smoked and drummed absently upon the table with his fingers that

were free. His neighbor frowned, grunted and threw down his hand. The third man did the same. Irish made

Had that ended the incident, sensitive readers might still read and think well of Irish. But one of the players

was not quite sober, and he was a poor loser and a pugnacious individual anyway, with a square face and a

thick neck that went straight up to the top of his head. His underlip pushed out, and when Irish turned away,

to cash in his chips, this pugnacious one reached over and took a look at the cards Irish had held.

It certainly was as rotten a hand as a man could hold. Suits all mixed, and not a face card or a pair in the lot.

The pugnacious player had held a king high straight, and he had stayed until Irish sent in all his chips. He

gave a bellow and jumped up and hit Irish a glancing blow back of the ear. Let us not go into details. You

know Irishor you should know him by this time. A man who will get away with a bluff like that should be

left alone or brained in the beginning of the fightespecially when he can look down on the hair of a

sixfoot man, and has muscles hardened by outdoor living. When the dust settled, two chairs were broken

and some glasses swept off the bar by heaving bodies, and two of the three players had forgotten their

troubles. The third was trying to find the knob on the back door, and could not because of the buzzing in his

head and the blood in his eyes. Irish had welts and two broken knuckles and a clear conscience, and he was so

mad he almost wound up by thrashing Rusty, who had stayed behind the bar and taken no hand in the fight.

Rusty complained because of the damage to his property, and Irish, being the only one present in a condition

He counted his money to make sure he had it all, evened the edges of the package of bank notes and thrust the

package into his pocket. If Rusty had kept his face closed about those few glasses and those chairs, he would

have left a "bill" on the bar to pay for them, even though he did need every cent of that money. He told Rusty

this, and he accused him of standing in with the nesters and turning down the men who had helped him make

"Why, darn your soul, I've spent money enough over this bar to buy out the whole damn joint, and you know

it!" he cried indignantly. "If you think you've got to collect damages, take it outa these blinketyblink

pilgrims you think so much of. Speak to 'em pleasant, though, or you're liable to lose the price of a beer,

"They won't because you've likely killed 'em both," Rusty retorted angrily. "You want to remember you can't

come into town and rip things up the back the way you used to, and nobody say a word. You better drift,

He went out while Rusty was deciding to order him out, and started for the stable. Halfway there he ducked

into the shadow of the blacksmith shop and watched two men go up the street to Rusty's place, walking

quickly. He went on then, got his horse hurriedly without waiting to cinch the saddle, led him behind the

blacksmith shop where he would not be likely to be found, and tied him there to the wreck of a freight wagon.

Then he went across lots to where Fred Wilson, manager of the general store, slept in a tworoom shack

belonging to the hotel. The door was lockedFred being a small man with little trust in Providence or in his

overt physical prowess and so he rapped cautiously upon the window until Fred awoke and wanted to

Irish told his name, and presently went inside. "I'm pulling outa town, Fred," he explained, "and I don't know

when I'll be in again. So I want you to take an order for some posts and bob wire and steeples. I"

"Why didn't you come to the store?" Fred very naturally demanded, peevish at being wakened at three o'clock

"I was busy. Crawl back into bed and cover up, while I give you the order. I'll want a receipt for the money,

tooI'm paying in advance, so you won't have any excuse for holding up the order. Got any thing to write

Fred found part of an order pad and a pencil, and crept shivering into his bed. The offer to pay in advance had

silenced his grumbling, as Irish expected it would. So Irish gave the orderthirteen hundred cedar posts, I

"Some of it. We're fencing our claims. If I don't come after the stuff myself, let any of the boys have it that

Fred was scratching his jaw meditatively with the pencil, and staring at the order. "I can just about fill that

order outa stock on hand," he told Irish. "When all this land rush started I laid in a big supply of posts and

wire. First thing they'd want, after they got their shacks up. How you making it, out there?"

"Fine," said Irish cheerfully, feeling his broken knuckles. "How much is all that going to cost? You oughta

"I will." Fred tore out a sheet and did some mysterious figuring, afterwards crumpling the paper into a little

wad and hipping it behind the bed. "This has got to be on the quiet, Irish. I can't sell wire and posts to those

eastern marks at this rate, you know. This is just for you boysand the profit for us is trimmed right down to

a whisper." He named the sum total with the air of one who confers a great favor.

Irish grinned and reached into his pocket. "You musta knocked your profit down to fifty percent.," he fleered.

"But it's a go with me." He peeled off the whole roll, just about. He had two twenties left in his hand when he

stopped. He was very methodical that night. He took a receipt for the money before he left and he looked at it

with glistening eyes before he folded it with the money. "Don't sell any posts and wire till our order's filled,

He let himself out into the cool starlight, walked in the shadows to where he had left his horse, mounted and

A gray clarity of the air told that daylight was near. The skyline retreated, the hills came out of the duskiness

like a photograph in the developer tray. Irish dipped down the steep slope into Antelope Coulee, cursing the

sprinkle of new shacks that stood stark in the dawn on every ridge and every hilltop, look where one might.

He loped along the winding trail through the coulee's bottom and climbed the hill beyond. At the top he

glanced across the more level upland to the east and his eyes lightened. Far away stood a shack Patsy's,

that was. Beyond that another, and yet another. Most of the boys had built in the coulees where was water.

They did not care so much about the viewover which Miss Allen had grown enthusiastic.

He pulled up in a certain place near the brow of the hill, and looked down into the narrower gulch where

huddled the shacks they had moved. He grinned at the sight. His hand went involuntarily to his pocket and

the grin widened. He hurried on that he might the sooner tell the boys of their good luck; all the material for

that line fence bought and paid for there would certainly laugh when they heard where the money had

First he thought that he would locate the cattle and tell his news to the boys on guard. He therefore left the

trail and rode up on a ridge from which he could overlook the whole benchland, with the exception of certain

gulches that cut through. The sky was reddening now, save where banked clouds turned purple. A breeze

crept over the grass and carried the fresh odor of rain. Close beside him a little brown bird chittered briskly

He looked away to where the Bear Paws humped, blueblack against the sky, the top of Old Baldy blushing

faintly under the first sun rays. He looked past Wolf Butte, where the land was blackened with outcroppings

of rock. His eyes came back leisurely to the claim country. A faint surprise widened his lids, and he turned

and sent a glance sweeping to the right, toward Flying U Coulee. He frowned, and studied the bench land

This was daybreak, when the cattle should be getting out for their breakfastfeed. They should be scattered

along the level just before him. And there were no cattle anywhere in sight. Neither were there any riders in

sight. Irish gave a puzzled grunt and turned in his saddle, looking back toward Dry Lake. That way, the land

was more broken, and he could not see so far. But as far as he could see there were no cattle that way either.

Last night when he rode to town the cattle of the colonists had been feeding on the long slope three or four

miles from where he stood, across Antelope Coulee where he had helped the boys drive them.

He did not waste many minutes studying the empty prairie from the vantage point of that ridge, however. The

keynote of Irish's nature was action. He sent his horse down the southern slope to the level, and began

looking for tracks, which is the range man's guidebook. He was not long in finding a broad trail, in the grass

where cattle had lately crossed the coulee from the west. He knew what that meant, and he swore when he

saw how the trail pointed straight to the eastto the broken, open country beyond One Man Coulee. What

had the boys been thinking of, to let that nester stock get past them in the night? What had the lineriders

Irish was sore from his fight in town, and he had not had much sleep during the past fortyeight hours, and he

was ravenously hungry. He followed the trail of the cattle until he saw that they certainly had gotten across

the Happy Family claims and into the rough country beyond; then he turned and rode over to Patsy's shack,

where a blue smoke column wobbled up to the fitful aircurrent that seized it and sent it flying toward the

There he learned that Dry Lake had not hugged to itself all the events of the night. Patsy, smoking a pipefull

of Durham while he waited for the teakettle to boil, was wild with resentment. In the night, while he slept,

something had heaved his cabin up at one corner. In a minute another corner heaved upward a foot or more.

Patsy had yelled while he felt around in the darkness for his clothes, and had got no answer, save other

Patsy was not the man to submit tamely to such indignities. He had groped and found his old 4570 riffle,

that made a noise like a young cannon and kicked like a broncho cow. While the shack lurched this way and

that, Patsy pointed the gun toward the greatest disturbance and fired. He did not think: he hit anybody, but he

apologized to Irish for missing and blamed the darkness for the misfortune. Py cosh, he sure triedwitness

the bullet holes which he had bored through the four sides of the shack; he besought Irish to count them;

Then? Why, then the Happy Family had come; or at least all those who had been awake and riding the prairie

had come pounding up out of the dark, their horses running like rabbits, their blood singing the song of battle.

They had grappled with certain of the enemyPatsy broke open the door and saw tangles of struggling

forms in the faint starlight. The Happy Family were not the type of men who must settle every argument with

a gun, remember. Not while their hands might be used to fight with. Patsy thought that they licked the nesters

without much trouble. He knew that the settlers ran, and that the Happy Family chased them clear across the

line and then came back and let the shack down where it belonged upon the rock underpining.

"Und py cosh! Dey vould move my shack off'n my land!" he grunted ragefully as he lived over the memory.

Irish went to the door and looked out. The wind had risen in the last half hour, so that his hat went sailing

against the rear wall, but he did not notice that. He was wondering why the settlers had made this night move

against Patsy. Was it an attempt to irritate the boys to some real act of violence something that would put

them in fear of the law? Or was it simply a stratagem to call off the nightguard so that they might slip their

cattle across into the breaks? They must have counted on some disturbance which would reach the ears of the

boys on guard. If Patsy had not begun the bombardment with his old rifle, they would very likely have fired a

few shots themselvesenough to attract attention. With that end in view, he could see why Patsy's shack had

been chosen for the attack. Patsy's shack was the closest to where they had been holding the cattle. It was

"Where are the boys at now?" he asked abruptly, turning to Patsy who had risen and knocked the ashes from

"Gone after the cattle. Dey stampede alreatty mit all der noise," Patsy growled, with his back to Irish.

So it was just as Irish had suspected. He faced the west and the gathering bank of "thunder heads" that rode

swift on the wind and muttered sullenly as they rode, and he hesitated. Should he go after the boys and help

them round up the stock and drive it back, or should he stay where he was and watch the claims? There was

Irish stood in the doorway until breakfast was ready whereupon he sat down and ate hurriedlyas much

from habit as from any present need of haste. A gust of wind made the flimsy cabin shake, and Patsy went to

"Some riders iss coming now," he said, and held the door half closed against the wind. "It ain't none off der

boys," he added, with the certainty which came of his having watched, times without number, while the

various members of the Happy Family rode in from the far horizons to camp. "Pilgrims, I guessfrom der

Irish grunted and reached for the coffee pot, giving scarce a thought to Patsy's announcement. While he

poured his third cup of coffee he made a sudden decision. He would get that fence off his mind, anyway.

"Say, Patsy, I've rustled wire and postsall we'll need. I guess I'll just turn this receipt over to you and let

you get busy. You take the team and drive in today and get the stuff headed out here pronto. The nesters are

shipping in more stockI heard in town that they're bringing in all they can rustle, thinkin' the stock will pay

big money while the claims are getting ready to produce. I heard a couple of marks telling each other just

how it was going to work out so as to put 'em all on Easy Streetthe darned chumps! Free grassthat's

what they harped on; feed don't cost anything. All yuh do is turn 'em loose and wait till shippin' season, and

"The sooner that fence is up the better. We can't put in the whole summer hazing their cattle around. I've

bought the stuff and paid for it. And here's forty dollars you can use to hire it hauled out here. Us fellows

have got to keep cases on the cattle, so you 'tend to this fence." He laid the money and Fred's receipt upon the

table and set Patsy's plate over them to hold them safe against the wind that rattled the shack. He had

forgotten all about the three approaching riders, until Patsy turned upon him sharply.

"Vot schrapes you been into now?" he demanded querulously. "Py cosh you done somet'ings. It's der

"I bet I don't," Irish retorted, and made for the one window, which looked toward the hills. "Feed 'em some

breakfast, Patsy. And you drive in and tend to that fencing right away, like I told you."

He threw one long leg over the window sill, bent his lean body to pass through the square opening, and drew

the other leg outside. He startled his horse, which had walked around there out of the wind, but he caught the

bridlereins and led him a few steps farther where he would be out of the direct view from the window. Then

He heard the three ride up to the other side of the shack and shout to Patsy. He heard Patsy moving about

inside, and after a brief delay open the door. He heard the constable ask Patsy if he knew anything about

Irish, and where he could be found; and he heard Patsy declare that he had enough to do without keeping

track of that boneheaded cowpuncher who was good for nothing but to fight and get into schrapes.

After that he heard Patsy ask the constable if they had had any breakfast before leaving town. He heard

certain saddle sounds which told of their dismounting in response to the tacit invitation. And then, pulling

his hat firmly down upon his head, Irish led his horse quietly down into a hollow behind the shack, and so out

He did not believe that he was wanted for anything very serious; they meant to arrest him, probably, for

laying out those two gamblers with a chair and a bottle of whisky respectively. A trumpedup charge, very

likely, chiefly calculated to make him some trouble and to eliminate him from the struggle for a time. Irish

did not worry at all over their reason for wanting him, but he did not intend to let them come close enough to

state their errand, because he did not want to become guilty of resisting an officerwhich would be much

In the hollow he mounted and rode down the depression and debouched upon the wide, grassy coulee where

lay a part of his own claim. He was not sure of the intentions of that constable, but he took it for granted that

he would presently ride on to Irish's cabin in search of him; also that he would look for him further, and

possibly with a good deal of persistence; which would be a nuisance and would in a measure hamper the

movements and therefore the usefulness of Irish. For that reason he was resolved to take no chance that could

The sun slid behind the scurrying forerunners of the storm and struggled unavailingly to shine through upon

the prairie land. From where he was Irish could not see the full extent of the stormclouds, and while he had

been on high land he had been too absorbed in other matters to pay much attention. Even now he did no more

than glance up casually at the inky mass above him, and decided that he would do well to ride on to his cabin

By the time he reached his shack the storm was beating up against the wind which had turned unexpectedly to

the northeast. Mutterings of thunder grew to sharper booming. It was the first real thunderstorm of the season,

but it was going to be a hard one, if looks meant anything. Irish went in and got his slicker and put it on, and

then hesitated over riding on in search of the cattle and the men in pursuit of them.

Still, the constable might take a notion to ride over this way in spite of the storm. And if he came there would

be delay, even if there were nothing worse. So Irish, being one to fight but never to stand idle, mounted again

First a few large drops of rain pattered upon the earth and left blobs of wet where they fell. His horse shook

its head impatiently and went sidling forward untill an admonitory kick from Irish sent him straight down the

dim trail. Then the clouds opened recklessly the headgates and let the rain down in one solid rush of water

that sluiced the hillsides and drove muddy torrents down channels that had been dry since the snow left.

Irish bent his head so that his hat shielded somewhat his face, and rode doggedly on. It was not the first time

that he had been out in a smashing, driving thunderstorm, and it would not be his last if his life went on

logically as he had planned it. But it was not the more comfortable because it was an oftrepeated experience.

And when the first fury had passed and still it rained steadily and with no promise of a letup, his optimism

His luck in town no longer cheered him. He began to feel the loss of sleep and the boneweariness of his

fight and the long ride afterwards. His breakfast was the one bright spot, and saved him from the gnawing

He went into One Man Coulee and followed it to the arm that would lead to the rolling, ridgy open land

beyond, where the "breaks" of the Badlands reached out to meet the prairie. He came across the track of the

herd, and followed it to the plain. Once out in the open, however, the herd had seemed to split into several

small bunches, each going in a different direction. Which puzzled Irish a little at first. Later, he thought he

The cattle, it would seem, had been driven purposefully into the edge of the breaks and there made to scatter

out through the winding gulches and canyons that led deeper into the Badlands. It was the trick of

rangemenhe could not believe that the strange settlers, ignorant of the country and the conditions, would

know enough to do this. He hesitated before several possible routes, the rain pouring down upon him, a chill

breeze driving it into his face. If there had been hoofprints to show which way the boys had gone, the rain had

He chose what seemed to him the gorge which the boys would be most likely to followespecially at night

and if they were in open pursuit of those who had driven the cattle off the benchland; and that the cattle had

been driven beyond this point was plain enough, for otherwise he would have overtaken stragglers long

It was nearing noon when he came out finally upon a little, open flat and found there Big Medicine and Pink

holding a bunch of perhaps a hundred cattle which they had gleaned from the surrounding gulches and little

"draws" which led into the hills. The two were wet to the skin, and they were chilled and hungry and as

Big Medicine it was who spied him first through the haze of falling water, and galloped heavily toward him,

"Say!" he bellowed when he was yet a hundred yards away. "Got any grub with yuh?"

"Y'AIN'T" Big Medicine's voice was charged with incredulous reproach. "What'n hell yuh doin' here without

Irish waited until he could get in a word and then started to explain. But Pink rode up with his hatbrim

flapping soggily against one dripping cheek when the wind caught it, and his coat buttoned wherever there

were buttons, and his collar turned up, and looking pinched and draggled and wholly miserable.

"Say! Got anything to eat?" he shouted when he came near, his voice eager and hopeful.

"No!" snapped Irish with the sting of Big Medicine's vituperations rankling fresh in his soul.

"Well why ain't yuh? Where's Patsy?" Pink came closer and eyed the newcomer truculently.

"Well, why don't yuh know? What do yuh think you're out here for? To tell us you think it's going to rain? If

we was all of us like you, there'd be nothing to it for the nester bunch. It's a wonder you come alive enough

to ride out this way at all! I don't reckon you've even got anything to drink! "Pink paused a second, saw no

move toward producing anything wet and cheering, and swore disgustedly. "Of course not! You needed it all

yourself! So help me Josephine, if I was as lowdown ornery as some I could name I'd tie myself to a mule's

Irish interrupted him then with a sentence that stung. Irish, remember, distinctly approved of himself and his

actions. True, he had forgotten to bring anything to eat with him, but there was excuse for that in the haste

with which he had left his own breakfast. Besides how could he be expected to know that the cattle had been

driven away down here, and scattered, and that the Happy Family would not have overtaken them long

Pink, with biting sarcasm, retorted that they did not. That it took a mind to read a mind. He added that, from

the looks of Irish, he must have started home drunk, anyway, and his horse had wandered this far of his own

accord. Then three or four cows started up a gulch to the right of them and Pink, hurling insults over his

shoulder, rode off to turn them back. So they did not actually come to blows, those two, though they were

Big Medicine lingered to bawl unforgivable things at; Irish, and Irish shouted back recklessly that they had

all acted like a bunch of sheepherders, or the cattle would never have been driven off the bench at all. He

declared that anybody with the brains of a sick sage hen would have stopped the thing right in the start. He

Big Medicine said things in reply, and Pink, returning to the scene with his anger grown considerably hotter

from feeding upon his discomfort, made a few comments pertinent to the subject of Irish's shortcomings.

You may scarcely believe it, unless you have really lived, and have learned how easily small irritations grow

to the proportions of real trouble, and how swiftlybut this is a fact: Irish and Big Medicine became so

enraged that they dismounted simultaneously and Irish jerked off his slicker while Big Medicine was running

They fought, there in the rain and the mud and the chill wind that whipped their wet cheeks. They fought just

as relentlessly as though they had long been enemies, and just as senselessly as though they were not grown

men but schoolboys. They clinched and pounded and smashed until Pink sickened at the sight and tore them

apart and swore at them for crazy men and implored them to have some sense. They let the cattle that had

been gathered with so much trouble drift away into the gulches and draws where they must be routed out of

When the first violence of their rage had like the storm settled to a cold steadiness of animosity, the two

Big Medicine and Pink drew close together as against a common foe, and Irish cursed them both and rode

The Old Man sat out in his big chair on the porch, smoking and staring dully at the trail which led up the

bluff by way of the Hog's Back to the benchland beyond. Facing him in an old, cane rocking chair, the

Honorable Blake smoked with that air of leisurely enjoyment which belongs to the man who knows and can

afford to burn good tobacco and who has the sense to, burn it consciously, realizing in every whiff its rich

fragrance. The Honorable Blake flicked a generous halfinch of ash from his cigar upon a porch support and

"No, it wouldn't do," he observed with the accent of a second consideration of a subject that coincides exactly

with the first. "It wouldn't do at all. You could save the boys time, I've no doubttime and trouble so far as

getting the cattle back where they belong is concerned. I can see how they must be hampered for lack of

saddlehorses, for instance. Butit wouldn't do, Whitmore. If they come to you and ask for horses don't let

them have them. They'll manage somehowtrust them for that. They'll manage" "But doggone it, Blake,

"Shsh" Blake held up a warning hand. "None of that, my dear Whitmore! These young fellows have

taken claims iner good faith." His bright blue eyes sparkled with a sudden feeling. "In the best of good

faith, if you ask me. Iadmire them intensely for what they have started out to do. But they have certain

things which they must do, and do alone. If you would not thwart them in accomplishing what they have set

out to do, you must go carefully; which means that you must not run to their aid with your campwagons and

your saddle horses, so they can gather the cattle again and drive them back where they belong. You would

not be helping them. They would get the cattle a little easier and a little quicker and lose their claims."

"But doggone it, Blake, them boys have lived right here at the Flying Uwhy, this has been their home, yuh

might say. They ain't like the general run of punchers that roam around, workin' for this outfit and for that;

they've stuck. Why, doggone it, what they done here when I got hurt in Chicago and they was left to run

themselves, why, that alone puts me under obligations to help 'em out in this scrape. Anybody could see that.

Ain't I a neighbor? Ain't neighbors got a right to jump in and help each other? There ain't no law agin"

"Not against neighborsno." Blake uncrossed his perfectly trousered legs and crossed them the other way,

after carefully avoiding any bagging tendency. "But this syndicate or these contestantswill try to prove

that you are not a neighbor only, but abacker of the boys in a landgrabbing scheme. To avoid"

"Well, doggone your measly hide, Blake, I've told you fifty times I ain't! "The Old Man sat forward in his

chair and shook his fist unabashed at his guest. "Them boys cooked that all up amongst themselves, and went

and filed on that land before ever I knowed a thing about it. How can yuh set there and say I backed 'em? And

that blonde Jezebelriding down here bold as brass and turnin' up her nose at Dell, and callin' me a

"I sticked a pin in her saddle blanket, Uncle Geegee. I'll bet she wished she'd stayed away from here when

her horse bucked her off." The Kid looked up from trying to tie a piece of paper to the end of a brindle

kitten's switching tail, and smiled his adorable smilethat had a gap in the middle.

"Hey? Oh, away down in the breaks after their cattle that got away. You keep still and never mind where

they've gone." His mind swung back to the Happy Family, combing the breaks for their stock and the stock of

the nesters, with an average of one saddlehorse apiece and a camp outfit of the most primitive sortif they

had any at all, which he doubted. The Old Man had eased too many roundups through that rough country not

"They need horses," he groaned to Blake, "and they need help. If you knowed the country and the work as

well as I do you'd know they've got to have horses and help. And there's their claimsfellers squatting down

on every eightyfour different nesters fer every doggoned one of the bunch to handle! And you tell me I got

to set here and not lift a hand. You tell me I can't put men to work on that fence they want built. You tell me I

Blake nodded. "I tell you that, and I emphasize it," he assured the other, brushing off another half inch of ash

from his cigar. "If you want to help those boys hold their land, you must not move a finger."

"He's wiggling all of 'em!" accused the Kid sternly, and pointed to the Old Man drumming irritatedly upon

his chair arms. "He don't want to help the boys, but I do. I'll help 'em get their cattle, Mr. Blake. I'm one of

"You've been told before not to butt in to grownup talk," his uncle reproved him irascibly. "Now you cut it

out. And take that string off'n that cat!" he added harshly. "Dell! Come and look after this kid! Doggone it, a

The Kid giggled irrepressibly. "That's one on you, old man. You saw Doctor Dell go away a long time ago.

"You go on off and play!" commanded the Old Man. "I dunno what yuh want to pester a feller to death

"Aw gwan! It ain't hurting the cat. She likes it." He lifted the kitten and squeezed her till she yowled. "See?

The Old Man returned to the trials of the Happy Family, and the Kid sat and listened, with the brindle kitten

The Kid had heard a good deal, lately, about the trials of his beloved "bunch." About the "nesters" who

brought cattle in to eat up the grass that belonged to the cattle of the bunch. The Kid understood that

perfectlysince he had been raised in the atmosphere of range talk. He had heard about the men building

shacks on the claims of the Happy Familyhe understood that also; for he had seen the shacks himself, and

he had seen where there had been slid down hill into the bottom of Antelope Coulee. He knew all about the

attack on Patsy's cabin and how the Happy Family had been fooled, and the cattle driven off and scattered.

The breaks he was a bit hazy upon the subject of breaks. He had heard about them all his life. The stock

got amongst them and had to be hunted out. He thoughtas nearly as could be put in wordsthat it must be

a place where all the brakes grow that are used on wagons and buggies. These were of wood, therefore they

must grow somewhere. They grew where the Happy Family went sometimes, when they were gone for days

and days after stock. They were down there nowit was down in the breaks, alwaysand they couldn't

round up their cattle because they hadn't horses enough. They needed help, so they could hurry back and slide

those other shacks off their claims and into Antelope Coulee where they had slid the others. On the whole, the

Kid had a very fair conception of the state of affairs. Claimants and contestantsthose words went over his

head. But he knew perfectly well that the nesters were the men that didn't like the Happy Family, and lived in

shacks on the way to town, and plowed big patches of prairie and had children that went barefooted in the

furrows and couldn't ride horses to save their lives. Pilgrim kids, that didn't know what "chaps" werehe had

talked with a few when he went with Doctor Dell and Daddy Chip to see the sick lady.

After a while, when the Honorable Blake became the chief speaker and leaned forward and tapped the Old

Man frequently on a knee with his finger, and used long words that carried no meaning, and said contestant

and claimant and evidence so often that he became tiresome, the Kid slid off the porch and went away, his

He would need some grubmaybe the bunch was hungry without any campwagons. The Kid had stood

around in the way, many's the time, and watched certain members of the Happy Family stuff emergency

rations into flour sacks, and afterwards tie the sack to their saddles and ride off. He knew all about that, too.

He hunted up a flour sack that had not had all the string pulled out of it so it was no longer a sack but a

dishtowel, and held it behind his back while he went cautiously to the kitchen door. The Countess was

nowhere in sightbut it was just as well to make sure. The Kid went in, took a basin off the table, held it

high and deliberately dropped it on the floor. It, made a loud bang, but it did not elicit any shrill protest from

the Countess; therefore the Countess was nowhere around. The Kid went in boldly and filled his foursack so

At the door he went down the steps ahead of the sack, and bent his small back from the third step and pulled

the sack upon his shoulders. It wobbled a good deal, and the Kid came near falling sidewise off the last step

before he could balance his burden. But he managed it, being the child of his parents and having a good deal

of persistence in his makeup; and he went, by a roundabout way, to the stable with the grubsack bending

him double. Still it was not so very heavy; it was made bulky by about two dozen freshmade doughnuts and

a loaf of bread and a jar of honey and a glass of wild currant jelly and a pound or so of raw, dried prunes

which the Kid called nibblin's because he liked to nibble at them, like a prairie dog at a grass root.

Getting that sack tied fast to the saddle after the saddle was on Silver's back was no easy task for a boy who is

six, even though he is large for his age. Still, being Chip's Kid and the Little Doctor's he did itwith the help

There were other things which the bunch always tied on their saddles; a blanket, for instance, and a rope. The

Kid made a trip to the bunkhouse and pulled a gray blanket off Ole's bed, and spent a quarter of an hour

rolling it as he had seen the boys roll blankets The oats box, with Silver standing beside it, came in handy

again. He found a discarded rope and after much labor coiled it crudely and tied it beside the saddlefork.

The Kid went to the door, stood beside it and leaned away over so that he could peek out and not be seen

Voices came from the housethe voice of the Old Man; to be exact, high pitched and combative. The Kid

looked up the bluff, and the trail lay empty in the afternoon sun. Still, he did not like to take that trail. Doctor

Dell might come riding down there almost any minute. The Kid did not want to meet Doctor Dell just right

He went back, took Silver by the bridle reins and led him out of the barn and around the corner where he

could not be seen from the White House. He thought he had better go down the creek, and out through the

wire gate and on down the creek that way. He was sure that the "breaks" were somewhere beyond the end of

the coulee, though he could not have explained why he was sure of it. Perhaps the boys, in speaking of the

The Kid went quickly down along the creek through the little pasture, leading Silver by the reins. He was

terribly afraid that his mother might ride over the top of the hill and see him and call him back. If she did that,

he would have to go, of course. Deliberate, open disobedience had never yet occurred to the Kid as a moral

possibility. If your mother or your Daddy Chip told you to come back, you had to come; therefore he did not

want to be told to come. Doctor Dell had told him that he could go on roundup some daythe Kid had

decided that this was the day, but that it would be foolish to mention the decision to anyone. People had a

way of disagreeing with one's decisionsespecially Doctor Dell, she always said one was too little. The Kid

thought he was getting pretty big, since he could stand on something and put the saddle on Silver his own

self, and cinch it and everything; plenty big enough to get out and help the bunch when they needed help.

He did not look so very big as he went trudging down alongside the creek, stumbling now and then in the

coarse grass that hid the scattered rocks. He could not keep his head twisted around to look under Silver's

neck and watch the hill trail, and at the same time see where he was putting his feet. And if he got on Silver

now he would be seen and recognized at the first glance which Doctor Dell would give to the coulee when

she rode over the brow of the hill. Walking beside Silver's shoulder , on the side farthest from the bluff, he

might not be seen at all; Doctor Dell might look and think it was just a horse walking along the creek his own

The Kid was extremely anxious that he should not be seen. The bunch needed him. Uncle Geegee said they

needed help. The Kid thought they would expect him to come and help with his "string", He helped Daddy

Chip drive the horses up from the little pasture, these days; just yesterday he had brought the whole bunch up,

all by his own self, and had driven them into the big corral alone, and Daddy Chip had stood by the gate and

watched him do it. Daddy Chip had lifted him down from Silver's back, and had squeezed him hard, and had

called him a real, old cowpuncher. The Kid got warm all inside him when he, thought of it.

When a turn in the narrow creekbottom hid him completely from the ranch buildings and the hill trail, the

Kid led Silver alongside a low bank, climbed into the saddle. Then he made Silver lope all the way to the

He had some trouble with that gate. It was a barbed wire gate, such as bigger men than the Kid sometimes

swear over. It went down all right, but when he came to put it up again, that was another matter. He simply

had to put it up before he could go on. You always had to shut gates if you found them shutthat was a law

of the range which the Kid had learned so long ago he could not remember when he had learned And there

was another reasonhe did not want em to know he had passed that way, if they took a notion to call him

back. So he worked and he tugged and he grew so red in the face it looked as if he were choking. But he got

the gate up and the wire loop over the stakethough he had to hunt up an old piece of a post to stand on, and

even then had to stand on his toes to reach the loopsince he was Chip's Kid and the Little Doctor's.

He even remembered to scrape out the telltale prints of his small feet in the bare earth there, and the prints

of Silver's feet where he went through. Yarns he had heard the Happy Family tell, in the bunkhouse on rainy

days, had taught him these tricks. He was extremely thorough in all that he didbeing a good deal like his

dadand when he went the grass, no one would have suspected that he had passed that way.

After a while he left that winding creekbottom and climbed a long ridge. Then he went down hill and pretty

soon he climbed another hill that made old Silver stop and rest before he went on to the top. The Kid stood on

the top for a few minutes and stared wistfully out over the tumbled mass of hills, and deep hollows, and hills,

and hill and hillstill he could not see where they left off. He could not see any of the bunch; but then, he

could not see any brakes growing anywhere, either. The bunch was down in the brakeshe had heard that

often enough to get it fixed firmly in his mind. Well, when he came to where the brakes grewand he would

know them, all right, when he saw them!he would find the bunch. He thought they'd be s'prised to see him

ride up! The bunch didn't know that he could drive stock all his own self, and that he was a real, old

cowpuncher now. He was a lot bigger. He didn't have to hunt such a big rock, or such a high bank, to get on

Silver now. He thought he must be pretty near as big as Pink, any way. They would certainly be s'prised!

The brakes must be farther over. Maybe he would have to go over on the other side of that biggest hill before

he came to the place where they grew. He rode unafraid down a steep, rocky slope where Silver picked his

way very, very carefully, and sometimes stopped and smelt of a ledge or a pile of rocks, and then turned and

The Kid let him choose his pathDaddy Chip had taught him to leave the reins loose and let Silver cross

ditches and rough places where he wanted to cross. So Silver brought him safely down that hill where even

He could not go right up over the next hillthere was a rock ledge that was higher than his head when he sat

on Silver. He went down a narrow gulchah, an awfully narrow gulch! Sometimes he was afraid Silver was

too fat to squeeze through; but Silver always did squeeze through somehow. And still there were no brakes

growing anywhere. Just choke cherry trees, and serviceberries, and now and then a little flat filled with

cottonwoods and willowsfamiliar trees and bushes that he had known all his six years of life.

So the Kid went on and on, over hills or around hills or down along the side of hill. But he did not find the

Happy Family, and he did not find the brakes. He found cattle that had the Flying U brandthey had a

comfortable, homey look. One bunch he drove down a wide coulee, hazing them out of the brush and yelling

"HYAH!" at them, just the way the Happy Family yelled. He thought maybe these were the cattle the Happy

Family were looking for; so he drove them ahead of him and didn't let one break back on him and he was the

happiest Kid in all Montana with these range cattle, that had the Flying U brand, galloping awkwardly ahead

The hills began to look bigger, and kind of chilly and blue in the deep places. The Kid wished that he could

find some of the boys. He was beginning to get hungry, and he had long ago begun to get tired. But he was

undismayed, even when he heard a coyote yapyapyapping up a brushy canyon. It might be that he would

have to camp out all night. The Kid had loved those cowboy yarns where the tellerwho was always the

herohad been caught out somewhere and had been compelled to make a "dry camp." His favorite story of

that type was the story of how Happy Jack had lost his clothes and had to go naked through the breaks. It was

not often that he could make Happy Jack tell him that storynever when the other boys were around. And

there were other times; when Pink had got lost, down in the breaks, and had found a cabin justinTIME,

with Irish sick inside and a blizzard just blowing outside, and they were mad at each other and wouldn't talk,

and all they had to eat was one weenty, teenty snowbird, till the yearling heifer came and Pink killed it and

they had beefsteak and got good friends again. And there were other times, that others of the boys could tell

about, and that the Kid thought about now with pounding pulse. It was not all childish fear of the deepening

shadows that made his eyes big and round while he rode slowly on, farther and farther into the breaks.

He still drove the cattle before him; rather, he followed where the cattle led. He felt very big and very

proudbut he did wish he could find the Happy Family! Somebody ought to stand guard, and he was getting

Silver stopped to drink at a little creek of clear, cold water. There was grass, and over there was a little

hollow under a rock ledge. The sky was all purple and red, like Doctor Dell painted in pictures, and up the,

coulee, where he had been a little while ago, it was looking kind of dark. The Kid thought maybe he had

better camp here till morning. He reined Silver against a bank and slid off, and stood looking around him at

the strange hills with the huge, black boulders that looked like houses unless you knew, and the white cliffs

For the first time since he started, the Kid wished guiltily that his dad was here orhe did wish the bunch

would happen along! He wondered if they weren't camped, maybe, around that point. Maybe they would hear

him if he hollered as loud as he could. which he did, two or three times; and quit because the hills hollered

back at him and they wouldn't stop for the longest timeit was just like people yelling at him from behind

The Kid knew, of course, who they were; they were Echoboys, and they wouldn't hurt, and they wouldn't let

you see them. They just ran away and hollered from some other place. There was an Echoboy lived up on

the bluff somewhere above the house. You could go down in the little pasture and holler, and the Echoboy

would holler back The Kid was not afraid but there seemed to be an awful lot of Echoboys down in these

The Kid was six, and he was big for his age; but he looked very little, there alone in that deep coulee that was

really more like a canyonvery little and lonesome and as if he needed his Doctor Dell to take him on her

lap and rock him. It was just about the time of day when Doctor Dell always rocked him and told him

storiesabout the Happy Family, maybe. The Kid hated to be suspected of baby ways, but he loved these

tunes, when his legs were tired and his eyes wanted to go shut, and Doctor Dell laid her cheek on his hair and

called him her baby man. Nobody knew about these times that was most always in the bed room and the

The Kid's lips quivered a little. Doctor Dell would be surprised when he didn't show up for supper, he

guessed. He turned to Silver and to his man ways, because he did not like to think about Doctor Dell just

"Well, old feller, I guess you want your saddle off, huh?" he quavered, and slapped the horse upon the

shoulder . He lifted the stirrupit was a little stock saddle, with everything just like a big saddle except the

size; Daddy Chip had had it made for the Kid in Cheyenne, last Christmasand began to undo the latigo,

whistling selfconsciously and finding that his lips kept trying to come unpuckered all the time, and trying to

"Gee! I always wanted to camp out and watch the stars," he told Silver stoutly. "Honest to gran'ma, I think

That helped a lot. The Kid could whistle better after that. He pulled of the saddle, laid it down on its side so

that the skirts would not bend out of shapeoh, he had been well taught, with the whole Happy Family for

his worshipful tutors!and untied the rope from beside the fork. "I'll have to anchor you to a tree,

oldtimer," he told the horse briskly. "I'd sure hate to be set afoot in this man's country!" And a minute

Would you believe it, that small child of the Flying U picketed his horse where the grass was best, and the

knots he tied were the knots his dad would have tied in his place. He unrolled his blanket and carried it to the

sheltered little nook under the ledge, and dragged the bag of doughnuts and the jelly and honey and bread

after it. He had heard about thievish animals that will carry off bacon and flour and such. He knew that he

ought to hang his grub in a tree, but he could not reach up as far as the fox who might try to help himself, so

The Kid ate a doughnut while he studied the matter out for himself. "If a coyote or a skink came pestering

around ME, I'd frow rocks at him," he said. So when he had finished the doughnut he collected a pile of

rocks. He ate another doughnut, went over and laid himself down on his stomach the way the boys did, and

drank from the little creek. It was just a chance that he had not come upon water tainted with alkalibut fate

So the Kid, trying very, very hard to act just like his Daddy Chip and the boys, flopped the blanket vigorously

this way and that in an effort to get it straightened, flopped himself on his knees and folded the blanket round

and round him until he looked like a large, gray cocoon, and cuddled himself under the ledge with his head

on the bag of doughnuts and his wide eyes fixed upon the first pale stars and his mind clinging sturdily to his

mission and to this first real, man sized adventure that had come into his small life.

It was very big and very emptythat canyon. He lifted his yellow head and looked to see if Silver were

there, and was comforted at the sight of his vague bulk close by, and by the steady KRUP, KRUP of bitten

"I'm a rell ole cowpuncher, all right," he told himself bravely; but he had to blink his eyelashes pretty fast

when he said it. A "rell ole cowpuncher" wouldn't cry! He was afraid Doctor Dell would be AWFULLY

An unexpected sob broke loose, and another. He wasn't afraidbut . . . Silver, cropping steadily at the grass

which must be his only supper, turned and came slowly toward the Kid in his search for sweeter grasstufts.

The Kid choked off the third sob and sat up ashamed. He tugged at the bag and made believe to Silver that his

"By cripes, that damn' jelly glass digs right into my ear," he complained aloud, to help along the deception.

"You go back, oldtimerI'm all right. I'm arellole cowpuncher; ain't I, oldtimer? We're makin' a

drycamp, just likeHappy Jack. I'm a rellole" The Kid went to sleep before he finished saying it.

There is nothing like the open air to make one sleep from dusk till dawn. The rell ole cowpuncher forgot his

little white bed in the corner of the big bedroom. He forgot that Doctor Dell would be awfully s'prised, and

that Daddy Chip would maybe be crossDaddy Chip was cross, sometimes. The rell ole cowpuncher lay

with his yellow curls pillowed on the bag of doughnuts and the gray blanket wrapped tightly around him, and

slept soundly; and his lips were curved in the half smile that came often to his sleeping place and made him

"Djuh find 'im?" The Old Man had limped down to the big gate and stood there bare headed under the stars,

"Hasn't he showed up yet?" Chip and the Little Doctor rode out of the gloom and stopped before the gate.

Chip did not wait for an answer. One question answered the other and there was no need for more. "I brought

Dell home," he said. "She's about all inand he's just as likely to come back himself as we are to run across

him. Silver'll bring him home, all right. He can't beyuh can't lose a horse. You go up to the house and lie

His voice held all the tenderness of the lover, and all the protectiveness of the husband and all the agony of a

father but Chip managed to keep it firm and even for all that. He lifted the Little Doctor bodily from the

saddle, held her very close in his arms for a minute, kissed her twice and pushed her gently through the gate.

"You better stay right here," he said authoritatively, "and rest and look after J.G. You can't do any good

ridingand you don't want to be gone when he comes." He reached over the gate, got hold of her arm and

pulled her towards him. "Buck up, old girl," he whispered, and kissed her lingeringly. "Now's the time to

show the stuff you're made of. You needn't worry one minute about that kid. He's the goods, all right. Yuh

"Go to bed!" echoed the Little Doctor and sardonically. J.G., are you sure he didn't say anything about going

"No. He was settin' there on the porch tormenting the cat." The Old Man swallowed a lump. "I told him to

quit. He set there a while after thatI was talkin'' to Blake. I dunno where he went to. I was"

"'S that you, Dell? Did yuh find 'im?" The Countess came flapping down the path in a faded, red kimono.

"What under the shinin' sun's went with him, do yuh s'pose? Yuh never know what a day's got up its

sleeve'n I always said it. Man plans and God displansthe poor little tad'll be scairt plumb to death, out

"Oh, for heaven's sake shut up!" cried the tortured Little Doctor, and fled past her up the path as though she

had some hope of running away from the tormenting thoughts also. "Poor little tad, all alone in the

dark,"the words followed her and were like sword thrusts through the mother heart of her. Then Chip

overtook her, knowing too well the hurt which the Countess had given with her blundering anxiety. Just at the

"You don't want to mind what that old hen says," he told her brusquely. "She's got to do just so much

cackling or she'd choke, I reckon. The Kid's all right. Some of the boys have run across him by this time,

most likely, and are bringing him in. He'll be good and hungry, and the scare will do him good." He forced

himself to speak as though the Kid had merely fallen on the corral fence, or something like that. "You've got

to make up your mind to these things," he argued, "if you tackle raising a boy, Dell. Why, I'll bet I ran off and

"Buthe'sjust a baby!" sobbed the Little Doctor with her face pressed hard against Chip's strong,

"He's a little devil!" amended Chip fiercely. "He ought to be walloped for scaring you like this. He's just as

capable of looking after himself as most kids twice his size. He'll get hungry and head for homeand if he

"Come, now! Haven't you got any more sense than the Countess? If you insist of thinking up horrors to scare

yourself with, I don't know as anybody can stop you. Dell! Brace up and quit worrying. I tell youhe'sall

That did well enoughseeing the Little Doctor did not get a look at Chip's face, which was white and drawn,

with sunken, haggard eyes staring into the dark over her head. He kissed her hastily and told her he must go,

and that he'd hurry back as soon as he could. So he went half running down the path and passed the Countess

and the Old Man without a word; piled onto his horse and went off up the hill road again.

They could not get it out of their minds that the Kid must have ridden up on the bluff to meet his mother, had

been too early to meet herfor the Little Doctor had come home rather later than she expected to doand

had wandered off to visit the boys, perhaps, or to meet his Daddy Chip who was over there some where on

the bench trying to figure out a system of ditches that might logically be expected to water the desert claims

They firmly believed that the kid had gone up on the hill, and so they hunted for him up there. The Honorable

Blake had gone to Dry Lake and taken the train for Great Falls, before ever the Kid had been really missed.

The Old Man had not seen the Kid ride up the hillbut he had been sitting with his chair turned away from

the road, and he was worried about other things and so might easily have missed seeing him. The Countess

had been taking a nap, and she was not expected to know anything about his departure. And she had not

looked into the doughnut jarindeed, she was so upset by supper time that, had she looked, she would not

have missed the doughnuts. For the same reason Ole did not miss his blanket. Ole had not been near his bed;

he was out riding and searching and calling through the coulee and up toward the old Denson place.

No one dreamed that the :Kid had started out with a camp outfitif one might call it thatand with the

intention of joining the Happy Family in the breaks, and of helping them gather their cattle. How could they

dream that? How could they realize that a child who still liked to be told bedtime stories and to be rocked to

sleep, should harbor such man size thoughts and ambitions? How could they know that the Kid was being "a

That night the whole Happy Family, just returned from the Badlands and warned by Chip at dusk that the Kid

was missing, hunted the coulees that bordered the benchland. A few of the nesters who had horses and could

ride them hunted also. The men who worked at the Flying U hunted, and Chip hunted frantically. Chip just

about worshipped that kid, and in spite of his calmness and his optimism when he talked to the Little Doctor,

At sunrise they straggled in to the ranch, caught up fresh horses, swallowed a cup of coffee and what food

they could choke down and started out again. At nine o'clock a party came out from Dry Lake, learned that

the Kid was not yet found, and went out under a captain to comb systematically through the hills and the

Before night all the ablebodied men in the country and some who were notwere searching. It is

astonishing how quickly a small army will volunteer in such an emergency; and it doesn't seem to matter very

much that the country seems big and empty of people ordinarily. They come from somewhere, when they're

The Little Doctoroh, let us not talk about the Little Doctor. Such agonies as she suffered go too deep for

The next day after that, Chip saddled a horse and let her ride beside him. Chip was afraid to leave her at the

ranch afraid that she would go mad. So he let her ridethey rode together. They did not go far from the

ranch. There was always the fear that someone might bring him in while they were gone. That fear drove

Up in another county there is a creek called Lost Child Creek. A child was lostor was it two

children?and men hunted and hunted and hunted, and it was months before anything was found. Then a

cowboy riding that way foundjust bones. Chip knew about that creek which is called Lost Child. He had

been there and he had heard the story, and he had seen thefather and had shudderedand that was long

before he had known the feeling a father has for his child. What he was deadly afraid of now was that the

What he dreaded most for himself was to think of that creek. He kept the Little Doctor beside him and away

from that Job's comforter, the Countess, and tried to keep her hope alive while the hours dragged their leaden

A camp was hastily organized in One Man Coulee and another out beyond Denson's place, and men went

there to the camps for a little food and a little rest, when they could hold out no longer. Chip and the Little

Doctor rode from camp to camp, intercepted every party of searchers they glimpsed on the horizon, and came

back to the ranch, holloweyed and silent for the most part. They would rest an hour, perhaps. Then they

The Happy Family seemed never to think of eating, never to want sleep. Two daysthree daysfour

daysthe days became a nightmare. Irish, with a warrant out for his arrest, rode with the constable,

perhapsif the search chanced to lead them together. Or with Big Medicine, whom he had left in hot anger.

H. J. Owens and these other claimjumpers hunted with the Happy Family and apparently gave not a thought

Miss Allen started out on the second day and hunted through all the coulees and gulches in the neighborhood

of her claimcoulees and gulches that had been searched frantically two or three times before. She had no

time to make whimsical speeches to Andy Green, nor he to listen. When they met, each asked the other for

news, and separated without a thought for each other. The Kidthey must find himthey must.

The third day, Miss Allen put up a lunch, told her three claim partners that she should not come back until

night unless that poor child was found, and that they need not look for her before dark and set out with the

She met Pink and the Native Son and was struck with the change which two days of killing anxiety had made

in them. True, they had not slept for fortyeight hours, except an hour or two after they had been forced to

stop and eat. True, they had not eaten except in snatches. But it was not that alone which made their faces

look haggard and old and haunted. They, too, were thinking of Lost Child Creek and How it had gotten its

Miss Allen gleaned a little information from them regarding the general whereabouts of the various searching

parties. And then, having learned that the foothills of the mountains were being searched minutely because

the Kid might have taken a notion to visit Meeker's; and that the country around Wolf Butte was being

searched, because he had once told Big Medicine that when he got bigger and his dad would let him, he was

going over there and kill wolves to make Doctor Dell some rugs: and that the country toward the river was

being searched because the Kid always wanted to see where the Happy Family drove the sheep to, that time

when Happy Jack got shot under the arm; that all the places the Kid had seemed most interested in were

being searched minutelyif it could be possible to; search minutely a country the size of that! Having

learned all that, Miss Allen struck off by herself, straight down into the Badlands where nobody seemed to

The reason for that was, that the Happy Family had come out of the breaks on the day that the Kid was lost.

They had not ridden together, but in twos and threes because they drove out several small bunches of cattle

that they had gleaned, to a common centre in One Man Coulee. They had traveled by the most feasible routes

through that rough country, and they had seen no sign of the Kid or any other rider.

They did not believe that he had come over that far, or even in that direction; because a horseman would

almost certainly have been sighted by some of them in crossing a ridge somewhere.

It never occurred to anyone that the Kid might go down Flying U Creek and so into the breaks and the

Badlands. Flying U Creek was fenced, and the wire gate was in its placeChip had looked down along

there, the first night, and had found the gate up just as it always was kept. Why should he suspect that the Kid

had managed to open that gate and to close it after him? A little fellow like that?

So the searching parties, having no clue to that one incident which would at least have sent them in the right

direction, kept to the outlying fringe of gulches which led into the broken edge of the benchland, and to the

country west and north and south of these gulches. At that, there was enough broken country to keep them

Miss Allen did not want to go tagging along with some party. She did not feel as if she could do any good

that way, and she wanted to do some good. She wanted to find that poor little fellow and take him to his

mother. She had met his mother, just the day before, and had ridden with her for several miles. The look in

the Little Doctor's eyes haunted Miss Allen until she felt sometimes as if she must scream curses to the

heavens for so torturing a mother. And that was not all; she had looked into Chip's face, last nightand she

She left the more open valley and rode down a long, twisting canyon that was lined with cliffs so that it was

impossible to climb out with a horse. She was sure she could not get lost or turned around, in a place like

that, and it seemed to her as hopeful a place to search as any. When you came to that, they all had to ride at

random and trust to luck, for there was not the faintest clue to guide them. So Miss Allen considered that she

could do no better than search all the patches of brush in the canyon, and keep on going.

The canyon ended abruptly in a little flat, which she crossed. She had not seen the tracks of any horse going

down, but when she was almost across the flat she discovered tracks of cattle, and now and then the print of a

shod hoof. Miss Allen began to pride herself on her astuteness in reading these signs. They meant that some

of the Happy Family had driven cattle this way; which meant that they would have seen little Claude

Bennettthat was the Kid's real name, which no one except perfect strangers ever usedthey would have

Miss Allen, then, must look farther than this. She hesitated before three or four feasible outlets to the little

flat, and chose the one farthest to the right. That carried her farther south, and deeper into a maze of gulches

and gorges and small, hidden valleys. She did not stop, but she began to see that it was going to be pure

chance, or the guiding hand of a tender Providence, if one ever did find anybody in this horrible jumble. She

had never seen such a mess. She believed that poor little tot had come down in here, after all; she could not

see why, but then you seldom did know why children took a notion to do certain unbelievable things. Miss

Allen had taught the primary grade in a city school, and she knew a little about small boys and girls and the

She rode and rode, trying to put herself mentally in the Kid's place. Trying to pick up the thread of logical

"I wonder," she thought suddenly, "if he started out with the idea of hunting cattle! I wouldn't be a bit

surprised if he didliving on a cattle ranch, and probably knowing that the men were down here

Still, that did not help her find the Kid. She saw a high, bald peak standing up at the mouth of the gorge down

which she was at that time picking her way, and she made up her mind to climb that peak and see if she might

not find him by looking from that point of vantage. So she rode to the foot of the pinnacle, tied her horse to a

Peaks like that are very deceptive in their height Miss Allen was slim and her lungs were perfect, and she

climbed steadily and as fast as she dared. For all that it took her a long while to reach the topmuch longer

than she expected. When she reached the black rock that looked, from the bottom, like the highest point of

the hill, she found that she had not gone much more than twothirds of the way up, and that the real peak

Miss Allen was a persistent young woman. She kept climbing until she did finally reach the highest point,

and could look down into gorges and flats and tiny basins and canyons and upon peaks and ridges and

wormlike windings, and patches of timber and patches of grass and patches of barren earth and patches of

rocks all jumbled up together. Miss Allen gasped from something more than the climb, and sat down upon

a rock, stricken with a sudden, overpowering weakness. "God in heaven!" she whispered, appalled. "What a

She sat there a while and stared dejectedly down upon that wild orgy of the earth's upheaval which is the

Badlands. She felt as though it was sheer madness even to think of finding anybody in there. It was worse

than a mountain country, because in the mountains there is a certain semblance of some system in the

canyons and high ridges and peaks. Here every thingpeaks, gorges, tiny valleys and allseemed to be just

dumped down together. Peaks rose from the middle of canyons; canyons were half the time blind pockets that

"Oh!" she cried aloud, jumpin up and gesticulating wildly. Baby! Little Claude! Here! Look up this way!"

She saw him, down below, on the opposite side from where she had left her horse.

The Kid was riding slowly up a gorge. Silver was picking his way carefully over the rocksthey looked tiny,

down there! And they were not going toward home, by any means. They were headed directly away from

The cheeks of Miss Allen were wet while she shouted and called and waved her hands. He was alive,

anyway. Oh, if his mother could only be told that he was alive! Oh, why weren't there telephones or

Miss Allen called again, and the Kid heard her. She was sure that he heard her, because he stoppedthat

pitiful, tiny speck down there on the horse!and she thought he looked up at her. Yes, she was sure he heard

her, and that finally he saw her; because he took off his hat and waved it over his headjust like a man, the

Miss Allen considered going straight down to him, and then walking around to where her horse was tied. She

was afraid to leave him while she went for the horse and rode around to where he was. She was afraid she

"Wait!" she shouted, her hands cupped around her trembling lips, tears rolling down her cheeks "Wait baby!

I'm coming for you." She hoped that the Kid heard what she said, but she could not be sure, for she did not

Miss Allen picked up her skirts away from her ankles and started running down the steep slope. The Kid,

away down below, stared up at her. She went down a third of the way, and stopped just in time to save herself

from going over a sheer wall of rocksstopped because a rock which she dislodged with her foot rolled

A step at a time Miss Allen crept down to where the rock had bounced off into nothingness, and gave one

look and crouched close to the earth. A hundred feet, it must be, straight down. After the first shock she

looked to the right and the left and saw that she must go back, and down upon the other side.

Away down there at the bottom, the Kid sat still on his horse and stared up at her. And Miss Allen calling to

Miss Allen turned to yell encouragingly to the Kid, and she saw that he was going on slowly, his head turned

to watch her. She told him to wait where he was, and she would come around the mountain and get him and

take him home. "Do you hear me, baby?" she asked imploringly after she had told him just what she meant to

"I ain't a baby!" his voice came faintly shrill after a minute. "I'm a rell ole cowpuncher"

Miss Allen thought that was what he said, but at the time she did not quite understand, except his denial of

being a baby; that was clear enough. She turned to the climb, feeling that she must hurry if she expected to

get him and take him home before dark. She knew that every minute was precious and must not be wasted. It

was well after noonshe had forgotten to eat her lunch, but her watch said it was nearly one o'clock already.

She had no idea how far she had ridden, but she thought it must be twelve miles at least.

She had no idea, either, how far she had run down the butte to the cliffuntil she began to climb back. Every

rod or so she stopped to rest and to look back and to call to the Kid who seemed such a tiny mite of humanity

among these huge peaks and fearsome gorges. He seemed to be watching her very closely always when she

looked she could see the pink blur of his little upturned face. She must hurry. Oh, if she could only send a

wireless to his mother! Human inventions fell far short of the big needs, after all, she thought as she toiled

From the top of the peak she could see the hazy outline of the Bear Paws, and she knew just about where the

Flying U Coulee lay. She imagined that she could distinguish the line of its bluff in the far distance. It was

not so very farbut she could not get any word of cheer across the quivering air lanes. She turned and

looked wishfully down at the Kid, a tinier speck now than beforefor she had climbed quite a distance She

waved her hand to him, and her warm brown eyes held a maternal tenderness. He waved his hatjust like a

man; he must be brave! she thought. She turned reluctantly and went hurrying down the other side, her blood

It seemed to take a long time to climb down that peak; much longer than she thought it would take. She

looked at her watch nervouslytwo o'clock, almost! She must hurry, or they would be in the dark getting

home. That did not worry her very much, However, for there would be searching partiesshe would be sure

She came finally down to the levelexcept that it was not level at all, but a troughshaped gulch that looked

unfamiliar. Still, it was the same one she had used as a starting point when she began to climbof course it

was the same one. How in the world could a person get turned around going straight up the side of a hill and

straight down again in the very same place. This was the gorge where her horse was tied, only it might be that

she was a little below the exact spot; that could happen, of course. So Miss Allen went up the gorge until it

petered out against the face of the mountainone might as well call it a mountain and be done with it, for it

It was some time before Miss Allen would admit to herself that she had missed the gorge where she had left

her horse, and that she did not know where the gorge was, and that she did not know where she was herself.

She had gone down the mouth of the gulch before she made any admissions, and she had seen not one

Not even the peak she had climbed looked familiar from where she was. She was not perfectly sure that it

Were you ever lost? It is a very peculiar sensationthe feeling that you are adrift in a world that is strange.

Miss Allen had never been lost before in her life. If she had been, she would have been more careful, and

would have made sure that she was descending that peak by the exact route she had followed up it, instead of

After an hour or two she decided to climb the peak again, get her bearings from the top and come down more

carefully. She was wild with apprehensionthough I must say it was not for her own plight but on account

of the Kid. So she climbed. And then everything looked so different that she believed she had climbed

another hill entirely. So she went down again and turned into a gorge which seemed to lead in the direction

where she had seen the little lost boy. She followed that quite a long wayand that one petered out like the

Miss Allen found the gorges filling up with shadow, and she looked up and saw the sky crimson and gold,

and she knew then without any doubts that she was lost. Miss Allen was a brave young woman, or she would

not have been down in that country in the first place; but just the same she sat down with her back against a

clay bank and cried because of the eeriness and the silence, and because she was hungry and she knew she

was going to be cold before morningbut mostly because she could not find that poor, brave little baby boy

In a few minutes she pulled herself together and went on; there was nothing to be gained by sitting in one

place and worrying. She walked until it was too dark to see, and then, because she had come upon a little,

level canyon bottom though one that was perfectly strangeshe stopped there where a high bank

sheltered her from the wind that was too cool for comfort. She called, a few times, until she was sure that the

child was not within hearing. After that she repeated poetry to keep her mind off the loneliness and the pity of

that poor baby alone like herself. She would not think of him if she could help it.

When she began to shiver so that her teeth chattered, she would walk up and down before the bank until she

felt warm again; then she would sit with her back against the clay and close her eyes and try to sleep. It was

not a pleasant way in which to pass a whole night, but Miss Allen endured it as best she could. When the sun

tinged the hilltops she got up stiffly and dragged herself out of the canyon where she could get the direction

straight in her mind, and then set off resolutely to find the Kid. She no longer had much thought of finding

her horse, though she missed him terribly, and wished she had the lunch that was tied to the saddle.

This, remember, was the fourth day since the Kid rode down through the little pasture and stood on a piece of

fencepost so that he could fasten the gate. Men had given up hope of finding him alive and unharmed. They

searched now for his body. And then the three women who lived with Miss Allen began to inquire about the

girl, and so the warning went out that Miss Allen was lost; and they began looking for her also.

Miss Allen, along towards noon of that fourth day, found a small stream of water that was fit to drink. Beside

the stream she found the footprints of a child, and they looked quite freshas if they had been made that

It was a long while afterwards that she met him coming down a canyon on his horse. It must have been past

three o'clock, and Miss Allen could scarcely drag herself along. When she saw him she turned faint, and sat

The Kid rode up and stopped beside her. His face was terribly dirty and streaked with the marks of tears he

would never acknowledge afterwards. He seemed to be all right, though, and because of his ignorance of the

danger he had been in he did not seem to have suffered half as much as had Miss Allen.

"Howdy do," he greeted her, and smiled his adorable little smile that was like the Little Doctor's. "Are you

the lady up on the hill? Do you know where the bunch is? I'mlookin' for the bunch."

Miss Allen found strength enough to stand up and put her arms around him as he sat very straight in his little

"You poor baby!" she cried, and her eyes were blurred with tears. "You poor little lost baby!"

"I ain't a baby!" The Kid pulled himself free. "I'm six years old goin' on thirty. I'm a rell ole cowpuncher. I

can slap a saddle on my string and ride like a sonagun. And I can put the bridle on him my own self and

everything. II was lookin' for the bunch. I had to make a drycamp and my doughnuts is smashed up and

the jelly glass broke but I never cried when a skink came. I shooed him away and I never cried once. I'm a

rell ole cowpuncher, ain't I? I ain't afraid of skinks. I frowed a rock at him and I said, git outa here, you damn

old skink or I'll knock your block off!' You oughter seen him go! II sure made him hard to ketch, by

Miss Allen stepped back and the twinkle came into her eyes and the whimsical twist to her lips. She knew

"Well, I should say you are a real old cowpuncher!" she exclaimed admiringly. "Now I'm afraid of skinks. I

never would dare knock his block off! And last night when I was lost and hungry and it got dark, Icried!"

"Hunh!" The Kid studied her with a condescending pity. "Oh, wellyou're just a woman. Us fellers have to

take care of women. Daddy Chip takes care of Doctor DellI guess she'd cry if she couldn't find the bunch

"Of course you never!" Miss Allen agreed emphatically, trying not to look conscious of any tearmarks on

the Kid's sunburned cheeks. "Women are regular cry babies, aren't they? I suppose," she added guilefully: "I'd

cry again if you rode off to find the bunch an left me down here all alone. I've lost my horse, an I've lost my

"Oh, I'll take care of you," the Kid comforted. "I'll give you a doughnut if you're hungry. I've got some left,

but you'll have to pick out the glass where the jelly broke on it." He reined closer to the bank and slid off and

began untying the sadly depleted bag from behind the cantle. Miss Allen offered to do it for him, and was

beautifully snubbed. The Kid may have been just a frightened, lost little boy before he met herbut that was

a secret hidden in the silences of the deep canyons. Now he was a real old cowpuncher, and he was going to

Miss Allen offended him deeply when she called him Claude. She was told bluntly that he was Buck, and that

he belonged to the Flying U outfit, and was riding down here to help the bunch gather some cattle. "But I

can't find the brakes," he admitted grudgingly. "That's where the bunch isdown in the brakes; I can't seem

"Don't you think you ought to go home to your mother?" Miss Allen asked him while he was struggling with

"I've got to find the bunch. The bunch needs me," said the Kid. "II guess Doctor Dell is s'prised"

"Who's Doctor Dell? Your mother? Your mother has just about cried herself sick, she's so lonesome without

The Kid looked at her wideeyed. "Aw, gwan! he retorted after a minute, imitating Happy Jack's disbelief of

any unpleasant news. "I guess you're jest loadin' me. Daddy Chip is takin' care of her. He wouldn't let her be

The Kid got the sack open and reached an arm in to the shoulder . He groped there for a minute and drew out

a battered doughnut smeared liberally with wild currant jelly, and gave it to Miss Allen with an air of princely

generosity and all the chivalry of all the Happy Family rolled into one baby gesture. Miss Allen took the

doughnut meekly and did not spoil the Kid's pleasure by hugging him as she would have liked to do. Instead

she said: "Thank you, Buck of the Flying U," quite humbly. Then something choked Miss Allen and she

"I've got one, two, free, fourteen left," said the Kid, counting them gravely. "If I had 'membered to bring

matches," he added regretfully, "I could have a fire and toast rabbit legs. I guess you got some glass, didn't

you? I got some and it cutted my tongue so the bleed camebut I never cried," he made haste to deny

stoutly. "I'm a rell ole cowpuncher now. I just cussed." He looked at her gravely. "You can't cuss where

"Let me see the doughnuts," said miss Allen abruptly. "I think you ought to let me keep the lunch. That's the

"It ain't lunch, it's grub," corrected the Kid. But he let her have the bag, and Miss Allen looked inside. There

were some dried prunes that looked like lumps of dirty dough, and six dilapidated doughnuts in a mess of

"I couldn't get the cover off," the Kid explained, "'theut I busted it, and then it would all spill like the jelly.

Miss Allen leaned over with her elbows on the bank and laughed and laughed. Miss Allen was closer to

hysterics than she had ever been in her life. The Kid looked at her in astonishment and turned to Silver,

standing with drooping head beside the bank. Miss Allen pulled herself together and asked him what he was

"I'm going to LOCATE your horse," he said, "and then I'm going to take you home." He looked at her

disapprovingly. "I don't like you so very much," he added. "It ain't p'lite to laugh at a feller all the time."

"I won't laugh any more. I think we had better go home right away," said Miss Allen contritely. "You see,

Buck, the bunch came home. Theythey aren't hunting cattle now. They want to find you and tell you. And

your father and mother need you awfully bad, Buck. They've been looking all over for you, everywhere, and

Buck looked wistfully up and down the canyon. His face at that moment was not the face of a real old

cowpuncher, but the sweet, dirty, motherhungry face of a child. "It's a far ways," he said plaintively. "It's a

million miles, I guess I wanted to go home, but I couldn't des' 'zactly 'memberand I thought I could find the

Miss Allen evaded that question and the Kid's wide, wistful eyes. "I think if we start out, Buck, we can find

it. We must go toward the sun, now. That will be towards home. Shall I put you on your horse?"

The Kid gave her a withering glance and squirmed up into the saddle with the help of both horn and cantle

The Kid looked down at her triumphantly. He frowned a little and flushed guiltily when he remembered

something. "'Scuse me," he said. "I guess you better ride my horse. I guess I better walk. It ain't p'lite for

"No, no!" Miss Allen reached up with both hands and held the Kid from dismounting. "I'll walk, Buck. I'd

rather. Iwhy, I wouldn't dare ride that horse of yours. I'd be afraid he might buck me off." She pinched her

"Hunh!" Scorn of her cowardice was in his tone. "Well, a course I ain't scared to ride him."

So with Miss Allen walking close to the Kid's stirrup and trying her best to keep up and to be cheerful and to

remember that she must not treat him like a little, lost boy but like a real old cowpuncher, they started up the

Andy Green came in from a twentyhour ride through the Wolf Butte country and learned that another

disaster had followed on the heels of the first; that miss Allen had been missing for thirtysix hours. While he

bolted what food was handiest in the camp where old Patsy cooked for the searchers, and the horse wrangler

brought up the saddlebunch just as though it was a roundup that held here its headquarters, he heard all that

One fact stood significantly in the foreground, and that was that Pink and the Native Son had been the last to

speak with her, so far as anyone knew. That was itso far as anyone knew. Andy's lips tightened. There

were many strangers riding through the country, and where there are many strangers there is also a certain

element of danger. That Miss Allen was lost was not the greatest fear that drove Andy Green forth without

First he meant to hunt up Pink and Miguelwhich was easy enough, since they rode into camp exhausted

and disheartened while he was saddling a fresh horse. From them he learned the direction which Miss Allen

had taken when she left them, and he rode that way and never stopped until he had gone down off the

benchland and had left the fringe of coulees and canyons behind. Pink and the Native Son had just come from

down in here, and they had seen no sign of either her or the Kid. Andy intended to begin where they had left

off, and comb the breaks as carefully as it is possible for one man to do. He was beginning to think that the

Badlands held the secret of the Kid disappearance, even though they had seen nothing of him when they came

out four days ago. Had he seen Chip he would have urged him to send all the searchersand there were two

or three hundred by nowinto the Badlands and keep them there until the Kid was found. But he did not see

Chip and had no time to hunt him up. And having managed to evade the supervision of any captain, and to

keep clear of all parties, he meant to go alone and see if he could find a clue, at least.

It was down in the long canyon which Miss Allen had followed, that Andy found hoofprints which he

recognized. The horse Miss Allen had ridden whenever he saw herone which she had bought somewhere

north of townhad one front foot which turned in toward the other. "Pigeontoed," he would have called it.

The track it left in soft soil was unmistakable. Andy's face brightened when he saw it and knew that he was

on her trail. The rest of the way down the canyon he rode alertly, for though he knew she might be miles from

there by now, to find the route she had taken into the Badlands was something gained.

The flat, which Andy knew very wellhaving driven the bunch of cattle whose footprints had so elated Miss

Allenhe crossed uneasily. There were so many outlets to this rich little valley. He tried several of them,

which took time; and always when he came to soft earth and saw no track of the hoof that turned in toward

the other, he would go back and ride into another gulch. And when you are told that these were many, and

that much of the ground was rocky, and some was covered with a thick mat of grass, you will not be surprised

that when Andy finally took up her trail in the canyon farthest to the right, it was well towards noon. He

followed her easily enough until he came to the next valley, which he examined over and over before he

found where she had left it to push deeper into the Badlands. And it was the same experience repeated when

He came into a network of gorges that would puzzle almost anyone, and stopped to water his horse and let

him feed for an hour or so. A man's horse meant a good deal to him, down here on such a mission, and even

After a while he mounted and rode on without having any clue to follow; one must trust to chance, to a

certain extent, in a place like this. He had not seen any sign of the Kid, either, and the gorges were filling

with shadows that told How low the sun was sliding down the sky. At that time he was not more than a mile

or so from the canyon up which Miss Allen was toiling afoot toward the sun; but Andy had no means of

knowing that. He went on with drooping head and eyes that stared achingly here and there. That was the

worst of his discomforthis eyes. Lack of sleep and the strain of looking, looking, against wind and sun, had

made them red rimmed and bloodshot. Miss Allen's eyes were like that, and so were the eyes of all the

In spite of himself Andy's eyes closed now. He had not slept for two nights, and he had been riding all that

time. Before he realized it he was asleep in the saddle, and his horse was carrying him into a gulch that had

no outletthere were so many such!but came up against a hill and stopped there. The shadows deepened,

Andy woke with a jerk, his horse having stopped because he could go no farther. But it was not that which

woke him. He listened. He would have sworn that he had heard the shrill, anxious whinney of a horse not far

away. He turned and examined the gulch, but it was narrow and grassy and had no possible place of

concealment, and save himself and his own horse it was empty. And it was not his own horse that

whinniedhe was sure of that. Also, he was sure that he had not dreamed it. A horse had called insistently.

Andy knew horses too well not to know that there was anxiety and rebellion in that call.

He waited a minute, his heart beating heavily. He turned and started back down the gulch, and then stopped

suddenly. He heard it againshrill, prolonged, a call from somewhere; where, he could not determine

because of the piled masses of earth and rock that flung the sound riotously here and there and confused him

Then his own horse turned his head and looked toward the left, and answered the call. From far off the

strange horse made shrill reply. Andy got down and began climbing the left hand ridge on the run, tired as

he was. Not many horses ranged down in hereand he did not believe, anyway, that this was any range

horse. It did not sound like Silver, but it might be the pigeontoed horse of Miss Allen. And if it was, then

Miss Allen would be there. He took a deep breath and went up the last steep pitch in a spurt of speed that

At the top he stood panting and searched the canyon below him. Just across the canyon was the high peak

which Miss Allen had climbed afoot. But down below him he saw her horse circling about in a trampled

You would never accuse Andy Green of being weak, or of having unsteady nerves, I hope.

But it is the truth that he felt his knees give way while he looked; and it was a minute or two before he had

any voice with which to call to her. Then he shouted, and the great hill opposite flung back the echoes

He started running down the ridge, and brought up in the canyon's bottom near the horse. It was growing

shadowy now to the top of the lower ridges, although the sun shone faintly on the crest of the peak. The horse

whinnied and circled restively when Andy came near. Andy needed no more than a glance to tell him that the

horse had stood tied there for twentyfour hours, at the very least. That meant. . . .

Andy turned pale. He shouted, and the canyon mocked him with echoes. He looked for her tracks. At the base

of the peak he saw the print of her riding boots; farther along, up the slope he saw the track again. Miss Allen,

then, must have climbed the peak, and he knew why she had done so. But why had she not come down again?

There was only one way to find out, and he took the method in the face of his weariness. He climbed the peak

also, with now and then a footprint to guide him. He was not one of these geniuses at trailing who could tell,

by a mere footprint, what had been in Miss Allen's mind when she had passed that way; but for all that it

seemed logical that she had gone up there to see if she could not glimpse the kidor possibly the way home.

At the top he did not loiter. He saw, before he reached the height, where Miss Allen had come down

againand he saw where she had, to avoid a clump of boulders and a broken ledge, gone too far to one side.

He followed that way. She had descended at an angle, after that, which took her away from the canyon.

In Montana there is more of daylight after the sun has gone than there is in some other places. Andy, by

hurrying, managed to trail Miss Allen to the bottom of the peak before it grew really dusky. He knew that she

had been completely lost when she reached the bottom, and had probably wandered about at random since

then. At any rate, there were no tracks anywhere save her own, so that he felt less anxiety over her safety

Andy knew these breaks pretty well. He went over a rocky ridge, which Miss Allen had not tried to cross

because to her it seemed exactly in the opposite direction from where she had started, and so he came to her

horse again. He untied the poor beast and searched for a possible trail over the ridge to where his own horse

waited; and by the time he had found one and had forced the horse to climb to the top and then descend into

He picketed Miss Allen's horse with his rope', and fashioned a hobble for his own mount. Then he ate a little

of the food he carried and sat down to rest and smoke and consider how best he could find Miss Allen or the

Kidor both. He believed Miss Allen to be somewhere not far awaysince she was afoot, and had left her

After a little he climbed back up the ridge to where he had noticed a patch of brush, and there he started a

fire. Not a very large one, but large enough to be seen for a long distance where the vision was not blocked

by intervening hills. Then he sat down beside it and waited and listened and tended the fire. It was all that he

could do for the present, and it seemed pitifully little. If she saw the fire, he believed that she would come; if

she did not see it, there was no hope of his finding her in the dark. Had there been fuel on the high peak, he

might have gone up there to start his fire; but that was out of the question, since the peak was barren.

Heavyeyed, tired in every fibre of his being, Andy dragged up a dead buckbush and laid the butt of it

across his blaze. Then he lay down near itand went to sleep as quickly as if he had been chloroformed.

It may have been an hour after thatit may have been more. He sat up suddenly and listened. Through the

stupor of his sleep he had heard Miss Allen call. At least, he believed he had heard her call, though he knew

he might easily have dreamed it. He knew he had been asleep, because the fire had eaten part of the way to

the branches of the bush and had died down to smoking embers. He kicked the branch upon the coals and a

blaze shot up into the night. He stood up and walked a little distance away from the fire so that he could see

From below he heard a faint callhe was sure of it. The wonder to him was that he had heard it at all in his

sleep. His anxiety must have been strong enough even then to send the signal to his brain and rouse him.

He shouted, and again he heard a faint call. It seemed to be far down the canyon. He started running that way.

The next time he shouted, she answered him more clearly. And farther along he distinctly heard and

After all, it was not so very far, to a man who is running recklessly down hill. Before he realized how close

he was he saw her standing before him in the starlight. Andy did not stop. He kept right on running until he

could catch her in his arms; and when he had her there he held her close and then he kissed her. That was not

proper, of coursebut a man does sometimes do terribly improper things under the stress of big emotions;

Well, Miss Allen was just as improper as he was, for that matter. She did say "Oh!" in a breathless kind of

way, and then she must have known who he was. There surely could be no other excuse for the way she clung

"Oh, I've found him!" she whispered after the first terribly unconventional greetings were over. "I've found

him, Mr. Green. I couldn't come up to the fire, because he's asleep and I couldn't carry him, and I wouldn't

wake him unless I had to. He's just down hereI was afraid to go very far, for fear of losing him again. Oh,

"Mine? It'swell, it's Rosemary. Never mind now. I should think you'd be just wild to see that poor little

"I've been wild," said Andy, "over a good many thingsyou, for one. Where's the Kid?"

They went together, hand in handterribly silly, wasn't it?to where the Kid lay wrapped in the gray

blanket in the shelter of a bank. Andy struck a match and held it so that he could see the Kid faceand Miss

Allen, looking at the man whose wooing had been so abrupt, saw his mouth tremble and his lashes glisten as

"Poor little tadhe's sure a great Kid," he said huskily when the match went out. He stood up and put his

arm around Miss Allen just as though that was his habit. "And it was you that found him!" he murmured with

I don't suppose anything can equal the aplomb of a child that has always had his own way and has developed

normally. The Kid, for instance, had been wandering in the wild places this was the morning of the sixth

day. The whole of Northern Montana waited anxiously for news of him. The ranch had been turned into a

rendezvous for searchers. Men rode as long as they could sit in the saddle. Women were hysterical in the

affection they lavished upon their own young. And yet, the Kid himself opened his eyes to the sun and his

mind was untroubled save where his immediate needs were concerned. He sat up thinking of breakfast, and

he spied Andy Green humped on his knees over a heap of campfire coals, toasting rabbit hamsthe joy of

iton a forked stick. Opposite him Miss Allen crouched and held another rabbitleg on a forked stick. The

Kid sat up as if a spring had been suddenly released, and threw off the gray blanket

"Say, I want to do that too!" he cried. "Get me a stick, Andy, so I can do it. I never did and I want to!"

Andy grabbed him as he came up and kissed himand the Kid wondered at the tremble of Andy's arms. He

wondered also at the unusual caress; but it was very nice to have Andy's arms around him and Andy's cheek

"I want my Daddy Chip!" he whimpered, and laid his head down on Andy's shoulder . "And I want my

Doctor Dell and mycat! She's lonesome for me. And I forgot to take the string off her tail and maybe it

"We're going to hit the trail, oldtimer, just as soon as we get outside of a little grub." Andy's voice was so

tender that Miss Allen gulped back a sob of sympathy. "You take this stick and finish roasting the meat, and

then see what you think of rabbithams. I hear you've been a real old cowpuncher, Buck. The way you took

care of Miss Allen proves you're the goods, all right. Not quite so close, or you'll burn it, Buck. That's better.

The Kid, squatting on his heels by the fire, watched gravely the rabbitleg on the two prongs of the willow

stick he held. He glanced across at Miss Allen and smiled his Little Doctor smile.

"He's my pal," he announced. "I bet if I stayed we could round up all them cattle our own selves. And I bet he

can find your horse, too. Hehe's 'customed to this country. I'd a found your horse today, all rightbut I

guess Andy could find him quicker. Us punchers'll take care of you, all right." The rabbitleg sagged to the

coals and began to scorch, and the Kid lifted it startled and was grateful when Miss Allen did not seem to

"I'd a killed a rabbit for you," he explained, "only I didn't have no gun or no matches so I couldn't. When I'm

ten my Daddy Chip is going to give me a gun. And then if you get lost I can take care of you like Andy can.

I'll be ten next week, I guess." He turned as Andy came back slicing off the branches of a willow the size of

"Say, oldtimer, where's the rest of the bunch?" he inquired casually. "Did you git your cattle rounded up?"

"Not yet." Andy sharpened the prongs of his stick and carefully impaled the back of the rabbit.

"Well, I'll help you out. But I guess I better go home firstI guess Doctor Dell might need me, maybe."

"I know she does, Buck." Andy's voice had a peculiar, shaky sound that the Kid did not understand. "She

Since Andy had gone at daybreak and brought the horses over into this canyon, his statement was a literal

one. They ate hurriedly and startedand Miss Allen insisted that Andy was all turned around, and that they

were going in exactly the wrong direction, and blushed and was silent when Andy, turning his face full

"You quit that!" the Kid commanded him sharply. "She's my girl I guess I found her first 'fore you did, and

After that there was no lovemaking but the most decorous conversation between these two.

Flying U Coulee lay deserted under the warm sunlight of early forenoon. Deserted, and silent with the silence

that tells where Death has stopped with his sickle. Even the Kid seemed to feel a strangeness in the

atmospherea stillness that made his face sober while he looked around the little pasture and up at the hill

trail. In all the way home they had not met anyonebut that may have been because Andy chose the way up

At the lower line fence of the little pasture Andy refused to believe the Kid's assertion of having opened and

shut the gate, until the Kid got down and proved that he could open itthe shutting process being too slow

for Andy's raw nerves. He lifted the Kid into the saddle and shut the gate himself, and led the way up the

"I guess Doctor Dell will be glad to see me," the Kid observed wistfully. "I've been gone most a year, I

Neither Andy nor Miss Allen made any reply to this. Their eyes were searching the hilltop for riders, that

"Hadn't you better shout?" suggested Miss Allen. "Or would it be better to go quietly"

Andy did not reply; nor did he shout. Andy, at that moment, was fighting a dryness in his throat. He could not

have called out if he had wanted to. They rode to the stable and stopped. Andy lifted the Kid down and set

him on his two feet by the stable door while he turned to Miss Allen. For once in his life he was at a loss. He

did not know how best to bring the Kid to the Little Doctor; How best to lighten the shock of seeing safe and

well the manchild who she thought was dead. He hesitated. Perhaps he should have ridden on to the house

with him. Perhaps he should have fired the signal when first he came into the coulee. Perhaps. . .

The Kid himself swept aside Andy's uncertainties. Adeline, the cat, came out of the stable and looked at them

contemplatively. Adeline still had the string tied to her tail, and a wisp of paper tied to the string. The Kid

"I guess I can tie knots so they stay, by cripes!" he shouted vaingloriously. "I guess Happy Jack can't tie

Adeline had not worried over the absence of the Kid, but his hilarious arrival seemed to worry her

considerably. She went bounding up the path to the house, and after her went the Kid, yelling epithets which

So he came to the porch just when Chip and the Little Doctor reached it, whitefaced and trembling. Adeline

paused to squeeze under the steps, and the Kid catching her by the tail, dragged her back yowling. While his

astounded parents watched him unbelievingly, the Kid gripped Adeline firmly and started up the steps.

"Say, I seen a skink, Daddy Chip, and I frowed a rock and knocked his block off 'cause he was going to swipe

Doctor Dell did not say. Doctor Dell was kneeling on the porch floor with the Kid held closer in her arms

than ever he held the cat, and she was crying and laughing and kissing him all at oncethough nobody

It is amazing how quickly life swings back to the normal after even so harrowing an experience as had come

to the Flying U. Tragedy had hovered there a while and had turned away with a smile, and the smile was

reflected upon the faces and in the eyes of everyone upon whose souls had fallen her shadow. The Kid was

safe, and he was well, and he had not suffered from the experience; on the contrary he spent most of his

waking hours in recounting his adventures to an admiring audience. He was a real old cowpuncher. He had

gone into the wilderness and he had proven the stuff that was in him. He had made "drycamp" just exactly

as well as any of the Happy Family could have done. He had slept out under the stars rolled in a

blanketand do you think for one minute that he would ever submit to lacetrimmed nighties again? If you

do, ask the little Doctor what the Kid said on the first night after his return, when she essayed to robe him in

spotless white and rock him, held tight in her starved arms. Or you might ask his Daddy Chip, who hovered

pretty close to them both, his eyes betraying how his soul gave thanks. Or never mind, I'll tell you myself.

The Little Doctor brought the nightie, and reached out her two eager arms to take the kid off Chip's knees

where he was perched contentedly relating his adventures with sundry hair raising additions born of his

imagination. The Kid was telling Daddy Chip about the skunk he saw, and he hated to be interrupted. He

looked at his Doctor Dell and at the familiar, white garment with lace at the neck and wristbands, and he

"Aw, take that damn' thing away!" he told her in the tone of the real old cowpuncher. "When I get ready to hit

Lest you should think him less lovable than he really was, I must add that, when Chip set him down hastily so

that he himself could rush off somewhere and laugh in secret, the Kid spread his arms with a little chuckle

"I want to be rocked," he told herand was her own baby man again, except that he absolutely refused to

reconsider the nightgown. "And I want you to tell me a storyabout when Silver breaked his leg. Silver's a

good ole scout, you bet. I don't know what I'd a done 'theut Silver. And tell about the bunch makin' a man

outa straw to scare you, and the horses runned away. I was such a far ways, Doctor Dell, and I couldn't get

back to hear them stories and I've most forgot about 'em. And tell about Whizzer, Doctor Dell."

The Little Doctor rocked him and told him of the old days, and she never again brought him his

lacetrimmed nightie at bedtime. She never mentioned his language upon the subject, either. The Little

Doctor was learning some things about her manchild, and one of them was this: When he rode away into the

Badlands and was lost, other things were lost, and lost permanently; he was no longer her baby, for all he

liked to be rocked. He had come back to her changed, so that she studied him amazedly while she

worshipped. He had entered boldly into the life which men live, and he would never come back entirely to the

old order of things. He would never be her baby; there would be a difference, even while she held him in her

She knew that it was so, when the Kid insisted, next day, upon going home with the bunch; with Andy,

rather, who was just now the Kid's particular hero. He had to help the bunch he said; they needed him, and

"Aw, you needn't be scared, Doctor Dell," he told her shrewdly. "I ain't going to find them brakes any more.

I'll stick with the bunch, cross my heart. and I'll come back tonight if you're scared 'theut me. Honest to

gran'ma, I've got to go and help the bunch lick the stuffen' outa them nesters, Doctor Dell."

The Little Doctor looked at him strangely, hugged him tight and let him go. Chip would be with them, and

he would bring the Kid home safely, andthe limitations of dooryard play no longer sufficed; her fledgling

"We'll take care of him," Andy promised her understandingly. "If Chip don't come up, this afternoon, I'll

"I suppose he's a lot safer with you boys than he is here at the ranchunless one of us stood over him all the

time, or we tied him up," she told Andy gamely. "I feel like a hen trying to raise a duck! Go on, Buckbut

The Kid kissed her violently and with a haste that betrayed where his thoughts were, in spite of the fact that

To her it was a supreme surrender of his babyhoodto him it was merely his due. The Little Doctor sighed

and watched him ride away beside Andy. "Children are such selfcentred little beasts!" she told J. G.

"Ay? If he was a girl he wouldn't git lost, maybe, but some feller'd take him away from yuh just the same.

The Kid's all right. He's just the kind you expect him to be and want him to be. You're tickled to death

because he's like he is. Doggone it, Dell, that Kid's got the real stuff in him! He's a dead ringer fer his

"It does," the Little Doctor declared. "But it does seem as if he might be contented here with me for a little

"It wasn't horrible to him, yuh want to recollect. Doggone it, I wish that Blake would come back. You write

to him, Dell, and tell him how things is stacking up. He oughta be here on the ground. No tellin' what them

So the Old Man slipped back into the old channels of worry and thought, just as life itself slips back after a

stressful period. The little Doctor sighed again and sat down to write the letter and to discuss with the Old

There was a good deal to say. For one thing, more contests had been filed and more shacks built upon claims

belonging to the Happy Family. She must tell Blake that. Also, Blake must help make some arrangement

whereby the Happy Family could hire an outfit to gather their stock and the alien stock which they meant to

drive back out of the Badlands. And there was Irish, who had quietly taken to the hills again as soon as the

Kid returned. Blake was needed to look into that particular bit of trouble and try and discover just how

serious it was. The man whom Irish had floored with a chair was apparently hovering close to deathand

there were these who emphasized the adverb and asserted that the hurt was only apparent, but could prove

"And you tell 'im," directed the Old Man querulously, "that I'll stand good for his time while he's lookin' after

things for the boys. And tell 'im if he's so doggoned scared I'll buy into the game, he needn't to show up here

at the ranch at all; tell him to stay in Dry Lake if he wants toserve him right to stop at that hotel fer a while.

But tell him for the Lord's sake git a move on. The way it looks to me, things is piling up on them boys till

they can't hardly see over the top, and something's got to be done. Tell 'imhere! Give me a sheet of paper

and a pencil and I'll tell him a few things myself. Chances are you'd smooth 'em out too much, gitting 'em on

The things he wrote painfully with his rheumatic hand were not smoothed for politeness' sake, and it made

the Old Man feel better to get them off his mind. He read the letter over three times, and lingered over the

most scathing sentences relishfully. He sent one of his new men to town for the express purpose of mailing

that letter, and he felt a glow of satisfaction at actually speaking his mind upon the subject.

Perhaps it was just as well he did not know that Blake was in Dry Lake when the letter reached his office in

Helena, and that it was forwarded to the place whence it had started. Blake was already "getting a move on,"

and he needed no such spur as the Old Man's letter. But the letter did the Old Man a lot of good, so that it

Blake had no intention of handling the case from the Flying U porch, for instance. He had laid his plans quite

independently of the Flying U outfit. He had no intention of letting Irish be arrested upon a trumped up

charge, and he managed to send a word of warning to that hotheaded young man not to put himself in the

way of any groping arm of the law; it was so much simpler than arrest and preliminary trial and bail, and all

that. He had sent word to Weary to come and see him, before ever he received the Old Man's letter, and he

had placed at Weary's disposal what funds would be needed for the immediate plans of the Happy Family. He

had attended in person to the hauling of the fence material to their boundary line on the day he arrived and

discovered by sheer accident that the stuff was still in the warehouse of the general store.

After he did all that, the Honorable Blake received the Old Man's letter, read it through slowly and afterwards

stroked down his Vandyke beard and laughed quietly to himself. The letter itself was both peremptory and

profane, and commanded the Honorable Blake to do exactly what he had already done, and what he intended

Florence Grace Hallman must not be counted a woman without principle or kindness of heart or these

qualities which make women beloved of men. She was a pretty nice young woman, unless one roused her

antagonism. Had Andy Green, for instance, accepted in good faith her offer of a position with the Syndicate,

he would have found her generous and humorous and loyal and kind. He would probably have fallen in love

with her before the summer was over, and he would never have discovered in her nature that hardness and

that ability for spiteful scheming which came to the surface and made the whole Happy Family look upon her

Florence Grace Hillman was intensely human, as well as intensely loyal to her firm. She had liked Andy

Green better than anyoneherself includedrealized. It was not altogether her vanity that was hurt when

she discovered how he had worked against herhow little her personality had counted with him. She felt

chagrined and humiliated and as though nothing save the complete subjugation of Andy Green and the

Deep in her heart she hoped that he would eventually want her to forgive him his treachery. She would give

him a good, hard fightshe would show him that she was mistress of the situation. She would force him to

respect her as a foe; after thatAndy Green was human, certainly. She trusted to her feminine intuition to

say just what should transpire after the fight; trusted to her feminine charm also to bring her whatever she

That was the personal side of the situation. There was also the professional side, which urged her to do battle

for the interests of her firm. And since both the personal and the professional aspects of the case pointed to

the same general goal, it may be assumed that Florence Grace was prepared to make a stiff fight.

Then Andy Green proceeded to fall in love with that sharp tongued Rosemary Allen; and Rosemary Allen

had no better taste than to let herself be lost and finally found by Andy, and had the nerve to show very

plainly that she not only approved of his love but returned it. After that, Florence Grace was in a condition to

stop at nothingshort of murderthat would defeat the Happy Family in their latest project.

While all the Bear Paw country was stirred up over the lost child, Florence Grace Hillman said it was too bad,

and had they found him yet? and went right along planting contestants upon the claims of the Happy Family.

She encouraged the building of claimshacks and urged firmness in holding possession of them. She visited

the man whom Irish had knocked down with a bottle of whisky, and she had a long talk with him and with

the doctor who attended him. She saw to it that the contest notices were served promptly upon the Happy

Family, and she hurried in shipments of stock. Oh, she was very busy indeed, during the week that was spent

in hunting the Kid. When he was found, and the rumor of an engagement between Rosemary Allen and that

treacherous Andy Green reached her, she was busier still; but since she had changed her methods and was

careful to mask her real purpose behind an air of passive resentment, her industry became less apparent.

The Happy Family did not pay much attention to Florence Grace Hallman and her studied opposition. They

were pretty busy attending to their own affairs; Andy Green was not only busy but very much in love, so that

he almost forgot the existence of Florence Grace except on the rare occasions when he met her riding over the

First of all they rounded up the stock that had been scattered, and they did not stop when they crossed

Antelope Coulee with the settlers' cattle. They bedded them there until after dark. Then they drove them on to

the valley of Dry Lake, crossed that valley on the train traveled road and pushed the herd up on Lonesome

They did not make much effort toward keeping it a secret. Indeed Weary told three or four of the most

indignant settlers, next day, where they would find their cattle. But he added that the feed was pretty good

"It isn't going to do you fellows any good to rear up on your hind legs and make a holler," he said calmly.

"We haven't hurt your cattle. We don't want to have trouble with anybody. But we're pretty sure to have a

fine, large row with our neighbors if they don't keep on their own side the fence."

That fence was growing to be more than a mere figure of speech The Happy Family did not love the digging

of post holes and the stretching of barbed wire; on the contrary they hated it so deeply that you could not get

a civil word out of one of them while the work went on; yet they put in long hours at the fencebuilding.

They had to take the work in shifts on account of having their own cattle to watch day and night. Sometimes

it happened that a man tamped posts or helped stretch wire all day, and then stood guard two or three hours

on the herd at night; which was wearing on the temper. Sometimes, because they were tired, they quarreled

New shipments of cattle, too, kept coming to Dry Lake. Invariably these would be driven out towards

Antelope Couleefarther if the drivers could manage itand would have to be driven back again with what

patience the Happy Family could muster. No one helped them among the settlers. There was every attitude

among the claimdwellers, from open opposition to latent antagonism. None were quite neutraland yet the

Happy Family did not bother any save these who had filed contests to their claims, or who took active part in

The Happy Family were not half as brutal as they might have been. In spite of their notrespassing signs they

permitted settlers to drive across their claims with wagons and water barrels, to haul water from One Man

They did not attempt to move the shacks of the later contestants off their claims. Though they hated the sight

of them and of the owners who bore themselves with such provocative assurance, they grudged the time the

moving would take. Besides that the Honorable Blake had told them that moving the shacks would

accomplish no real, permanent good. Within thirty days they must appear before the register and receiver and

file answer to the contest, and he assured them that forbearance upon their part would serve to strengthen

It goes to prove how deeply in earnest they were, that they immediately began to practice assiduously the

virtues of mildness and forbearance. They could, he told them, postpone the filing of their answers until close

to the end of the thirty days; which would serve also to delay the date of actual trial of the contests, and give

Their plans had enlarged somewhat. They talked now of fencing the whole tract on all four sides, and of

building a dam across the mouth of a certain coulee in the foothills which drained several miles of rough

country, thereby converting the coulee into a reservoir that would furnish water for their desert claims. It

would take work, of course; but the Happy Family; were beginning to see prosperity on the trail ahead and

nothing in the shape of hard work could stop them from coming to hanggrips with fortune.

Chip helped them all he could, but he had the Flying U to look after, and that without the good teamwork of

the Happy Family which had kept things moving along so smoothly. The teamwork now was being used in

So far the summer had been favorable to dryfarming. The more enterprising of the settlers had some grain

and planted potatoes upon freshly broken soil, and these were growing apace. They did not know about these

scorching August winds, that might shrivel crops in a day. They did not realize that early frosts might kill

what the hot winds spared. They became enthusiastic over dryfarming, and their resentment toward the

Happy family increased as their enthusiasm waxed strong. The Happy Family complained to one another that

In this manner did civilization march out and take possession of the high prairies that lay close to the Flying

U. They had a Sunday School organized, with the meetings held in a double shack near the trail to Dry Lake.

The Happy family, riding that way, sometimes heard voices mingled in the shrill singing of some hymn

Eighty acres to the manwith that climate and that soil they never could make it pay; with that soil

especially since it was mostly barren. The Happy Family knew it, and could find it in their hearts to pity the

men who were putting in dollars and time and hard work there. But for obvious reasons they did not put their

They fenced their west line in record time. There was only one gate in the whole length of it, and that was on

the trail to Dry Lake. Not content with trusting to the warning of four strands of barbed wire stretched so tight

that they hummed to the touch, they took turns in watching it"riding fence," in range parlanceand in

To H. J. Owens and his fellow contestants they paid not the slightest attention, because the Honorable Blake

had urged them personally to ignore any and all claimants. To Florence Grace Hallman they gave no heed,

believing that she had done her worst, and that her worst was after all pretty weak, since the contests she had

caused to be filed could not possibly be approved by the government so long as the Happy Family continued

to abide by every law and bylaw and condition and requirement in their present throughgoing and

You should have seen how mildmannered and how industrious the Happy Family were, during these three

weeks which followed the excitement of the Kid's adventuring into the wild. You would have been

astonished, and you would have made the mistake of thinking that they had changed permanently and might

be expected now to settle down with wives and raise families and hay and cattle and potatoes, and grow

The Happy Family were almost convinced that they were actually leaving excitement behind them for good

and all. They might hold back the encroaching tide of immigration from the rough land along the riverthat

sounded like something exciting, to be sure. But they must hold back the tide with legal proceedings and by

pastoral pursuits, and that promised little in the way of brisk, decisive action and strong nerves and all these

Miss Rosemary Allen rode down into One Man Coulee and boldly up to the cabin of Andy Green, and

shouted musically for him to come forth. Andy made a hasty pass at his hair with a brush, jerked his tie

straight and came out eagerly. There was no hesitation in his manner. He went straight up to her and reached

up to pull her from the saddle, that he might hold her in his arms and kiss herafter the manner of bold

young men who are very much in love. But Miss Rosemary Allen stopped him with a push that was not

"I am in a most furious mood today," she said. "I want to scratch somebody's eyes out! I want to say

WORDS. Don't come close, or I might pull your hair or something, James." She called him James because

that was not his name, and because she had learned a good deal about his past misdeeds and liked to take a

sly whack at his notorious tendency to forget the truth, by calling him Truthful James.

"All right; that suits me fine. It's worth a lot to have you close enough to pull hair. Where have you been all

this long while?" Being a bold young man and very much in love, he kissed her in spite of her professed

"Oh, I've been to townit hasn't been more than three days since we met and had that terrible quarrel James.

What was it about?" She frowned down at him thoughtfully. "I'm still furious about itwhatever it is. Do

you know, Mr. Man, that I am an outlaw amongst my neighbors, and that our happy little household, up there

on the hill, is a house divided against itself? I've put up a green burlap curtain on my southwest corner, and

bought me a smelly oil stove and I positively refuse to look at my neighbors or speak to them. I'm going to

"Those three catsthey get together on the other side of my curtain and say the meanest things!"

Andy Green had the temerity to laugh. "That sounds good to me," he told her unsympathetically. "Now

maybe you'll come down and keep house for me and let that pinnacle go to thunder. It's no good anyway, and

I told you so long ago. That whole eighty acres of yours wouldn't support a family of jackrabbits month.

"And let those old hens say they drove me off? That Kate Price is the limit. The things she said to me you

wouldn't believe. And it all started over my going with little Buck a few times to ride along your fence when

you boys were busy. I consider that I had a perfect right to ride where I pleased. Of course they're furious

anyway, because I don't side against you boys andand all that. Whenwhen they found out aboutyou

and me, James, they said some pretty sarcastic things, but I didn't pay any attention to that. Poor old freaks, I

expected them to be jealous, because nobody ever pays any attention to THEM. Kate Price is the

"Well, I didn't mind the things they said then; I took that for granted. But a week or so ago Florence Hallman

came, and she did stir things up in great style! Since then the girls have hardly spoken to me except to say

something insulting. And Florence Grace came right out and called me a traitor; that was before little Buck

and I took to 'riding fence' as you call it, for you boys. You imagine what they've been saying since then!"

"Well, what do you care? You don't have to stay with them, and you know it. I'm just waiting"

"Well, but I'm no quitter, James. I'm going to hold down that claim now if I have to wear a sixshooter!" Her

eyes twinkled at that idea. "Besides, I can stir them up now and then and get them to say things that are

useful. For instance, Florence Hallman told Kate Price about that last trainload of cattle coming, and that they

were going to cut your fence and drive them through in the nightand I stirred dear little Katie up so she

couldn't keep still about that. And therefore" She reached out and gave Andy Green's ear a small

tweek"somebody found out about it, and a lot of somebodys happened around that way and just quietly

managed to give folks a hint that there was fine grass somewhere else. That saved a lot of horseflesh and

"But listen here, nice, levelheaded Katiegirl has lost her temper since then, and let out a little more that is

useful knowledge to somebody. There's one great weak point in the character of Florence Hallman; maybe

you have noticed it. She's just simply GOT to have somebody to tell things to, and she doesn't always show

"I've noticed that before," Andy Green admitted, and smiled reminiscently. "She sure does talk too

"Yesand she's been making a chum of Katie Price since she discovered what an untrustworthy creature I

am. I did a little favor for Irish Mallory, James. I overheard Florence Grace talking to Kate about that man

who is supposed to be at death's door. So I made a trip to Great Falls, if you please, and I scouted around and

located the gentlemanwell, anyway, I gave that nice, sleek little lawyer of yours a few facts that will let

"Irish has been coming back to his claim pretty regular as it is," Andy informed her quietly. "Did you think he

was hiding out, all this time? Why"he laughed at her"you talked to him yourself, one day, and thought it

was Weary. Remember when you came over with the mail? That was Irish helping me string wire. He's been

wearing Weary's hat and clothes and cultivating a twinkle to his eyesthat's all"

"Why, Iwell, anyway, that man they've been making a fuss over is just as well as you are, James. They

only wanted to get Irish in jail and make a little troublepretty cheap warfare at that, if you want my

"Oh, wellwhat's the odds? While they're wasting time and energy that way, we're going right along doing

what we've laid out to do. Say, do you know I'm kinda getting stuck on this ranch proposition. If I just had a

Miss Rosemary Allen seldom let him get beyond that point, and she interrupted him now by wrinkling her

nose at him in a manner that made Andy Green forget altogether that he had begun a sentence upon a subject

forbidden. Later she went back to her worries; she was a very persistent young woman.

"I hope you boys are going to attend to that contest business right away," she said, with a pucker between her

eyes and not much twinkle in them. "There's something about that which I don't quite understand. I heard

Florence Hallman and Kate talking yesterday about it going by default. Are you sure it's wise to put off filing

"Me? On or before the twentyoneth day of July, my dear girl. They lumped us up and served us all on the

same dayI reckon to save shoeleather; therefore, inasmuch as said adverse parties have got over a week

"You'd better not take a chance, waiting till the last day in the afternoon," she warned him vaguely. "Maybe

they think you've forgotten the date or somethingbut whatever they think, I believe they're counting on

your not answering in time. I think Florence Hallman knows they haven't any real proof against you. I know

she knows it. She's perfectly wild over the way you boys have stuck here and worked. And from what I can

gather, she hasn't been able to scrape up the weentiest bit of evidence that the Flying U is backing you and

of course that is the only ground they could contest your claims on. So if it comes to trial, you'll all win;

you're bound to. I told Kate Price soand those other old hens, yesterday, and that's what we had the row

"The wounded? Oh, they've clubbed together this morning and are washing hankies and collars and things,

and talking about me. And they have snouged every speck of water from the barrelI paid my share for the

hauling, tooand the man won't come again till day after tomorrow with more. Fifty cents a barrel, straight,

he's charging now, James. And you , boys with a great, big, long creekful of it that you can get right in and

swim in! I've come over to borrow two waterbags of it, if you please, James I never dreamed water was so

precious. Florence Hallman ought to be made to lie on one of these dry claims she's fooled us into taking. I

really don't know, James, what's going to become of some of these poor farmers. You knew, didn't you, that

Mr. Murphy spent nearly two hundred dollars boring a welland now it's so strong of alkali they daren't use

a drop of it? Mr. Murphy is living right up to his name and nationality, since then. He's away back there

beyond the Sands place, you know. He has to haul water about six miles. Believe me, James, Florence

Hallman had better keep away from Murphy! I met him as I was coming out from town, and he called her a

"That's mild!" Andy commented dryly. "Get down, why don't you? I want you to take a look at the inside of

my shack and see how bad I need a housekeepersince you won't take my word for it. I hope every drop of

water leaks outa these bags before you get home. I hope old Mister falls down and spills it. I've a good mind

not to let you have any, anyway. Maybe you could be starved and tortured into coming down here where you

"Maybe I couldn't. I'll get me a barrel of my own, and hire Simpson to fill it four times a week, if you please!

And I'll put a lid with a padlock on it, so Katie dear can't rob me in the nightand I'll use a whole quart at a

time to wash dishes, and two quarts when I take a bath! I shall," she asserted with much emphasis, "lie in

Andy laughed and waved his hand toward One Man Creek. "That's all rightbut how would you like to have

that running past your house, so you could wake up in the night and hear it go gurglegurgle?, Wouldn't that

Rosemary Allen clasped her two gloved hands together and drew a long breath. "I should want to run out and

stop it," she declared. "To think of water actually running around loose in this world!! And think of us up on

that dry prairie, paying fifty cents a barrel for itand a lot slopped out of the barrel on the road!" She

glanced down into Andy's lovelighted eyes, and her own softened. She placed her hand on his shoulder and

"I know, boybut it isn't in me to give up anything I set out to do, any more than it is in you. You wouldn't

like me half so well if I could just drop that claim and think no more about it. I've got enough money to

commute, when the time comes, and I'll feel a lot better if I go through with it now I've started.

AndJames!" She smiled at him wistfully. "Even if it is only eighty acres, it will make good pasture,

After that you could not expect Andy Green to do any more badgering or to discourage the girl. He did like

her better for having grit and a mental backboneand he found a way of telling her so and of making the

He filled her canvas waterbags and went with her to carry them, and he cheered her much with his

aircastles. Afterwards he took the team and rustled a waterbarrel and hauled her a barrel of water and gave

Kate Price a stonyeyed stare when she was caught watching him superciliously; and in divers ways

managed to make Miss Rosemary Allen feel that she was fighting a good fight and that the odds were all in

her favor and in the favor of the Happy Familyand of Andy Green in particular. She felt that the spite of

her three very near neighbors was really a matter to laugh over, and the spleen of Florence Hallman a joke.

But for all that she gave Andy Green one last warning when he climbed up to the spring seat of the wagon

and unwound the lines from the brakehandle, ready to drive back to his own work. She went close to the

front wheel, so that eavesdroppers could not hear, and held her front hair from blowing across her earnest,

"Now remember, boy, do go and file your answer to those contestsall of you!" she urged. "I don't know

whybut I've a feeling some kind of a scheme is being hatched to make you trouble on that one point. And

if you see Buck, tell him I'll ride fence with him tomorrow again. If you realized how much I like that old

"I'm jealous right now, without realizing a thing except that I've got to go off and leave you here with a bunch

of lemons," he retortedand he spoke loud enough so that any eavesdroppers might hear.

Did you ever stop to think of the tremendous moral lesson in the Bible tale of David and Goliath? And how

great, human issues are often decided one way or the other by little things? Not all crises are passed in the

clashing of swords and the boom of cannon. It was a pebble the size of your thumbend, remember, that slew

In the struggle which the Happy Family was making to preserve the shrunken range of the Flying U, and to

hold back the sweeping tide of immigration, one might logically look for some big, overwhelming element to

turn the tide one way or the other. With the Homeseekers' Syndicate backing the natural animosity of the

settlers, who had filed upon semiarid land because the Happy Family had taken all of the tract that was

And yet the struggle was resolving itself into the question of whether the contest filings should be approved

by the landoffice, or the filings of the Happy Family be allowed to stand as having been made in good faith.

Florence Hallman therefore, having taken upon herself the leadership in the contest fight, must do one of two

things if she would have victory to salve the hurt to her selfesteem and to vindicate the firm's policy in the

She must produce evidence of the collusion of the Flying U outfit with the Happy Family, in the taking of the

claims. Or she must connive to prevent the filing of answers to the contest notices within the timelimit fixed

by law, so that the cases would go by default. That, of course, was the simplestsince she had not been able

There was another element in the land strugglethat was the soil and climate that would fight inexorably

against the settlers; but with them we have little to do, since the Happy Family had nothing to do with them

A fourwire fence and a systematic patrol along the line was having its effect upon the stock question. If the

settlers drove their cattle south until they passed the farthest corner of Flying U fence, they came plump

against Bert Rogers' barbed boundary line. West of that was his father's placeand that stretched to the

railroad rightofway, fenced on either side with a stockproof barrier and hugging the Missouri all the way

to the Mariaswhere were other settlers. If they went north until they passed the fence of the Happy Family,

there were the Meeker holdings to bar the way to the very foot of Old Centennial, and as far up its sides as

The Happy Family had planned wisely when they took their claims in a long chain that stretched across the

benchland north of the Flying U. Florence Grace knew this perfectly wellbut what could she prove? The

Happy Family had bought cattle of their own, and were grazing them lawfully upon their own claims. A

lawyer had assured her that there was no evidence to be gained there. They never went near J. G. Whitmore,

nor did they make use of his wagons, his teams or his tools or his money; instead they hired what they

needed, openly and from Bert Rogers. They had bought their cattle from the Flying U, and that was the extent

of their business relationson the surface. And since collusion had been the ground given for the contests, it

will be easily seen what slight hope Florence Grace and her clients must have of winning any contest suit.

Still, there was that alternative the Happy Family had been so eager to build that fence and gather their

cattle and put them back on the claims, and so anxious lest in their absence the settlers should slip cattle

across the dead line and into the breaks, that they had postponed their trip to Great Falls as long as possible.

The Honorable Blake had tacitly advised them to do so; and the Happy Family never gave a thought to their

H. J. Owens, whose eyes were the wrong shade of blue, sat upon a rocky hilltop which overlooked the trail

from Flying U Coulee and a greater portion of the shackdotted benchland as well, and swept the far

horizons with his field glasses. Just down the eastern slope, where the jutting sandstone cast a shadow, his

horse stood tied to a dejected wildcurrant bush. He laid the glasses across his knees while he refilled his

pipe, and tilted his hatbrim to shield his pale blue eyes from the sun that was sliding past midday.

H. J. Owens looked at his watch, nevertheless, as though the position of the sun meant nothing to him. He

scowled a little, stretched a leg straight out before him to ease it of cramp, and afterwards moved farther

along in the shade. The wind swept past with a faint whistle, and laid the ripening grasses flat where it

passed. A cloud shadow moved slowly along the slope beneath him, and he watched the darkening of the

earth where it touched, and the sharp contrast of the sunyellowed sea of grass all around it. H. J. Owens

looked bored and sleepy; yet he did not leave the hilltopnor did he go to sleep.

Instead, he lifted the glasses, turned them toward Flying U Coulee a half mile to the south of him, and stared

long at the trail. After a few minutes he made a gesture to lower the glasses, and then abruptly fixed them

steadily upon one spot, where the trail wound up over the crest of the bluff. He looked for a minute, and laid

H. J. Owens fumbled in the pocket of his coat, which he had folded and laid beside him on the yellow gravel

of the hill. He found something he wanted, stood up, and with his back against a boulder he faced to the

southwest. He was careful about the direction. He glanced up at the sun, squinting his eyes at the glare; he

A glitter of sun on glass showed briefly. H. J. Owens laid his palm over it, waited while he could count ten,

and took his palm away. Replaced it, waited, and revealed the glass again with the sun glare upon it full. He

He glanced down toward Flying U Coulee againtoward where the trail stretched like a brown ribbon

through the grass. He seemed to be in something of a hurry nowif impatient movement meant

anythingyet he did not leave the place at once. He kept looking off there toward the southwestoff

A smudge of smoke rose thinly there, behind a hill. Unless one had been watching the place, one would

scarcely have noticed it, but H. J. Owens saw it at once and smiled his twisted smile and went running down

the hill to where his horse was tied. He mounted and rode down to the level, skirted the knoll and came out

The Kid was going to see Rosemary Allen and take a ride with her along the new fence; but he pulled up with

the air of condescension which was his usual attitude toward "nesters," and in response to the twisted smile of

"Want to go on a bearhunt with me, Buck?" began H. J. Owens with just the right tone of comradeship, to

"I was goin' to ride fence with Miss Allen," the Kid declined regretfully. "There ain't any bears got very close,

there ain't. I guess you musta swallered something Andy told you." He looked at H. J. Owens tolerantly.

"No sir. I never talked to Andy about this." Had he been perfectly truthful he would have added that he had

not talked with Andy about anything whatever, but he let it go. "This is a bear den I found myself; There's

two little baby cubs, Buck, and I was wondering if you wouldn't like to go along and get one for a pet. You

The Kid's eyes shone, but he was wary. This man was a nester, so it would be just at well to be careful

"Where 'bouts is it?" he therefore demanded in a tone of doubt that would have done credit to Happy Jack.

"Oh, down over there in the hills. It's a secret, though, till we get them out. Some fellows are after them for

"The mean devils!" condemned the Kid promptly. "I'd take a fall outa them if I ketched 'em skinning any

"Let's go down into this next gully to talk it over, Buck," he suggested with an air of secretiveness that fired

the Kid's imagination. "They started out to follow me, and I don't want 'em to see me talking to you, you

The Kid went with him unsuspectingly. In all the six years of his life, no man had ever offered him injury.

Fear had not yet become associated with those who spoke him fair. Nesters he did not consider friends

because they were not friends with his bunch. Personally he did not know anything about enemies. This man

was a nesterbut he called him Buck, and he talked very nice and friendly, and he said he knew where there

were some little baby bear cubs. The Kid had never before realized how much he wanted a bear cub for a pet.

H. J. Owens led the way into a shallow draw between two low hills, glancing often behind him and around

him until they were shielded by the higher ground. He was careful to keep where the grass was thickest and

would hold no hoofprints to betray them, but the Kid never noticed. He was thinking how nice it would be to

have a bear cub for a pet. But it was funny that the Happy Family had never found him one, if there were any

He turned to put the question direct to H. J. Owens, I but that gentleman forestalled him.

"You wait here a minute, Buck, while I ride back on this hill a little ways to see if those fellows are on our

The Kid waited obediently. He saw H. J. Owens get off his horse and go sneaking up to the brow of the hill,

and take some field glasses out of his pocket and look all around over the prairie with them. The sight tingled

the Kid's blood so that he almost forgot about the bear cub. It was almost exactly like fighting Injuns, like

In a few minutes Owens came back to the Kid, and they went on slowly, keeping always in the low, grassy

places where there would be no tracks left to tell of their passing that way. Behind them a yellowbrown

cloud drifted sullenly with the wind. Now and then a black flake settled past them to the ground. A peculiar,

H. J. Owens related a long, fulldetailed account of how he had been down in the hills along the river, and

"I knowthat's jes' 'zactly the way they do!" the Kid interrupted excitedly. "Daddy Chip seen one doing it on

H. J. Owens glanced sidelong at the Kid's flushed face, smiled his twisted smile and went on with his story.

He had not bothered them, he said, because he did not have any way of carrying both cubs, and he hated to

kill them. He had thought of Buck, and how he would like a pet cub, so he had followed the bear to her den

The Kid never once doubted that it was so. Whenever any of the Happy Family found anything in the hills

that was nice, they always thought of Buck, and they always brought it to him. You would be amazed at the

number of rattlesnake rattles, and eagle's claws, and elk teeth, and things like that, which the Kid possessed

"'Course you'd 'member I wanted a baby bear cub; for a pet," he assented gravely and with a certain

"Why?" H. J. Owens turned from staring at the rolling smoke cloud, and looked at the Kid curiously. "Ain't

"'Course I'm big enough" The Kid's pride was touched. "I can ride as far as a horse can travel I bet I can ride

farther and faster 'n you can, you pilgrims" He eyed the other disdainfully. "Huh! You can't ride. When you

trot you go this way!" The Kid kicked Silver into a trot and went bouncing along with his elbows flapping

"I don't want to go a far ways," he explained when the other was again Riding alongside, "'cause Doctor Dell

would cry if I didn't come back to supper. She cried when I was out huntin' the bunch. Doctor Dell gets

lonesome awful easy." He looked over his shoulder uneasily. "I guess I better go back and tell her I'm goin' to

git a baby bear cub for a pet," he said, and reined Silver around to act upon the impulse.

"Nodon't do that, Buck." H. J. Owens pulled his horse in front of Silver. "It isn't farjust a little ways.

And it would be fun to surprise them at the ranch Gee! When they saw you ride up with a pet bear cub in

your arms" H. J. Owens shook his head as though he could not find words to express the surprise of the

The Kid smiled his Little Doctor smile. "I'd tell a man!" he assented enthusiastically. "I bet the Countess

would holler when she seen it. She scares awful easy. She's scared of a mice, even! Huh! My kitty ketched a

mice and she carried it right in her mouth and brought it into the kitchen and let it set down on the floor a

minute, and it started to run away the mice did. And it runned right up to the Countess, and she jes'

hollered and yelled And she got right up and stood on a chair and hollered for Daddy Chip to come and ketch

that mice. He didn't do it though. Adeline ketched it herself. And I took it away from her and put it in a box

"She'll be scared when she sees the bear cub," H. J. Owens declared absentmindedly. "I know you won't be,

though. If we hurry maybe we can watch how he digs ants for his supper. That's lots of fun, Buck"

"YesI 'member it's fun to watch baby bear cubs dig ants," the Kid assented earnestly, and followed

That the way was far did not impress itself upon the Kid, beguiled with wonderful stories of how baby bear

cubs might be taught to do tricks. He listened and believed, and invented some very wonderful tricks that he

meant to teach his baby bear cub. Not until the shadows began to fill the gullies through which they rode did

the Kid awake to the fact that night was coming close and that they were still traveling away from home and

in a direction which was strange to him. Never in his life had he been tricked by any one with unfriendly

intent. He did not guess that he was being tricked now. Ho rode away into the wild places in search of a baby

It is a penitentiary offense for anyone to set fire to prairie grass or timber; and if you know the havoc which

one blazing match may work upon dry grassland when the wind is blowing free, you will not wonder at the

penalty for lighting that match with deliberate intent to set the prairie afire.

Within five minutes after H. J. Owens slipped the bit of mirror back into his pocket after flashing a signal that

the Kid was riding alone upon the trail, a line of fire several rods long was creeping up out of a grassy hollow

to the hilltop beyond, whence it would go racing away to the east and the north, growing bigger and harder to

The Happy Family were working hard that day upon the system of irrigation by which they meant to reclaim

and make really valuable their desert claims. They happened to be, at the time when the fire was started, six

or seven miles away, wrangling over the best means of getting their main ditch around a certain coulee

without building a lot of expensive flume. A surveyor would have been a blessing, at this point in the

undertaking; but a surveyor charged good money for his services, and the Happy Family were trying to be

very economical with money; with time, and effort, and with words they were not so frugal.

The fire had been burning for an hour and had spread so alarmingly before the gusty breeze that it threatened

several claimshacks before they noticed the telltale, brownish tint to the sunlight and smelled other smoke

than the smoke of the wordbattle then waging fiercely among them. They dropped stakes, flags and

ditchlevel and ran to where their horses waited sleepily the pleasure of their masters.

They reached the level of the benchland to see disaster swooping down upon them like a racehorse. They

did not stop then to wonder how the fire had started, or why it had gained such headway. They raced their

horses after sacks, and after the wagon and team and water barrels with which to fight the flames. For it was

not the claimshacks in its path which alone were threatened. The grass that was burning meant a great deal

to the stock, and therefore to the general welfare of every settler upon that bench, be he native or newcomer.

Florence Grace Hallman had, upon one of her periodical visits among her "clients," warned them of the

danger of prairie fires and urged them to plow and burn guards around all their buildings. A few of the

settlers had done so and were comparatively safe in the face of that leaping, red line. But there were some

The Happy Family, to a man, had delayed; rather they had not considered that there was any immediate

danger from fire; it was too early in the season for the grass to be tinder dry, as it would become a month or

six weeks later. They were wholly unprepared for the catastrophe, so far as any expectation of it went. But for

all that they knew exactly what to do and how to go about doing it, and they did not waste a single minute in

While the Kid was riding with H. J. Owens into the hills, his friends, the bunch, were riding furiously in the

opposite direction. And that was exactly what had been planned beforehand. There was an absolute certainty

in the minds of those who planned that it would be so, Florence Grace Hallman, for instance, knew just what

would furnish complete occupation for the minds and the hands of the Happy Family and of every other man

in that neighborhood, that afternoon. Perhaps a claimshack or two would go up in smoke and some grass

would burn. But when one has a stubborn disposition and is fighting for prestige and revenge and the success

of ones business, a shack or two and a few acres of prairie grass do not count for very much.

For the rest of that afternoon the boys of the Flying U fought side by side with hated nesters and told the

inexperienced how best to fight. For the rest of that afternoon no one remembered the Kid, or wondered why

H. J. Owens was not there in the grimy line of firefighters who slapped doggedly at the leaping flames with

sacks kept wet from the barrels of water hauled here and there as they were needed. No one had time to call

the roll and see who was missing among the settlers. No one dreamed that this mysterious fire that had crept

up out of a coulee and spread a black, smoking blanket over the hills where it passed, was nothing more nor

lees than a diversion while a greater crime was being committed behind their backs.

In spite of them the fire, beaten out of existence at one point, gained unexpected fury elsewhere and raced on.

In spite of them women and children were in actual danger of being burned to death, and rushed weeping

from flimsy shelter to find safety in the nearest barren coulee. The sick lady whom the Little Doctor had been

tending was carried out on her bed and laid upon the blackened prairie, hysterical from the fright she had

received. The shack she had lately occupied smoked while the tarred paper on the roof crisped and curled;

and then the whole structure burst into flames and sent blazing bits of paper and boards to spread the fire

Fire guards which the inexperienced settlers thought safe were jumped without any perceptible check upon

the flames. The wind was just right for the fanning of the fire. It shifted now and then erratically and sent the

yellow line leaping in new directions. Florence Grace Hallman was in Dry Lake that day, and she did not hear

until after dark how completely her little diversion had been a success; how more than half of her colony had

been left homeless and hungry upon the charred prairie. Florence Grace Hallman would not have relished her

At Antelope Coulee the Happy Family and such of the settlers as they could muster hastily for the fight, made

a desperate stand against the common enemy. Flying U Coulee was safe, thanks to the permanent fireguards

which the Old Man maintained year after year as a matter of course. But there were the claims of the Happy

Men drove their work horses at a gallop after plows, and when they had brought them they lashed the horses

into a trot while they plowed crooked furrows in the sunbaked prairie sod, just over the eastern rim of

Antelope Coulee. The Happy Family knelt here and there along the freshturned sod, and started a line of fire

that must beat up against the wind until it met the flames, rushing before it. Backfiring is always a more or

Every man of them took a certain stretch of furrow to watch, and ran backward and forward with blackened,

frayed sacks to beat out the wayward flames that licked treacherously through the smallest break in the line of

fresh soil. They knew too well the danger of those little, licking flame tongues; not one was left to live and

They workedheavens, how they worked!and they stopped the fire there on the rim of Antelope Coulee.

Florence Grace Hallman would have been sick with fury, had she seen that dogged line of fighters, and the

ragged hem of charred black ashes against the yellowbrown, which showed how well those men whom she

So the fire was stopped well outside the fence which marked the boundary of the Happy Family's claims. All

west of there and far to the north the hills and the coulees lay black as far as one could seewhich was to the

rim of the hills which bordered Dry Lake valley on the east. Here and there a claim shack stood forlorn

amid the blackness. Here and there a heap of embers still smoked and sent forth an occasional spitting of

sparks when a gust fanned the heap. Men, women and children stood about blankly or wandered

disconsolately here and there, coughing in the acrid clouds of warm grass cinders kicked up by their own

No one missed the Kid. No one dreamed that he was lost again. Chip was with the Happy Family and did not

know that the Kid had left the ranch that afternoon. The Little Doctor had taken it for granted that he had

gone with his daddy, as he so frequently did; and with his daddy and the whole Happy Family to look after

him, she never once doubted that he was perfectly safe, even among the firefighters. She supposed he would

be up on the seat beside Patsy, probably, proudly riding on the wagon that hauled the water barrels.

The Little Doctor had troubles of her own to occupy her mind She had ridden hurriedly up the hill and

straight to the shack of the sick woman, when first she discovered that the prairie was afire. And she had

found the sick woman lying on a makeshift bed on the smoking, black area that was pathetically safe now

"Little black shack's all burnt up! Everything's black now. Black hills, black hollows, black future, black

world, black heartseverything matcheseverything's black. Sky's black, I'm blackyou're blacklittle

black shack won't have to stand all alone any morelittle black shack's just black asheslittle black shack's

all burnt up!" And then the woman laughed shrilly, with that terrible, meaningless laughter of hysteria.

She was a pretty woman, and young. Her hair was that bright shade of red that goes with a skin like thin,

rosetinted ivory. Her eyes were big and so dark a blue that they sometimes looked black, and her mouth was

sweet and had a tired droop to match the mute pathos of her eyes. Her husband was a coarse lout of a man

who seldom spoke to her when they were together. The Little Doctor had felt that all the tragedy of

womanhood and poverty and loneliness was synthesized in this woman with the unusual hair and skin and

eyes and expression. She had been coming every day to see her; the woman was rather seriously ill, and

needed better care than she could get out there on the bald prairie, even with the Little Doctor to watch over

her. If she died her face would haunt the Little Doctor always. Even if she did not die she would remain a

vivid memory. Just now even the Little Doctor's mother instinct was submerged under her professional

instincts and her woman sympathy. She did not stop to wonder whether she was perfectly sure that the Kid

was with Chip. She took it for granted and dismissed the Kid from her mind, and worked to save the woman.

Yes, the little diversion of a prairie fire that would call all hands to the westward so that the Kid might be

lured away in another direction without the mishap of being seen, proved a startling success. As a diversion it

could scarcely be improved uponunless Florence Grace Hallman had ordered a wholesale massacre or

Miss Rosemary Allen, having wielded a wet gunny sack until her eyes were red and smarting and her lungs

choked with cinders and her arms so tired she could scarcely lift them, was permitted by fate to be almost the

first person who discovered that her quarter of the fourroom shack built upon the four contiguous corners of

four claims, was afire in the very middle of its roof. Miss Rosemary Allen stood still and watched it burn, and

Other shacks had caught fire and burned hotly, and she had wept with sympathy for the owners. But she did

not weep when her own shack began to crackle and show yellow, licking tongues of flame. Those three old

catsI am using her own term, which was spitefulwould probably give up now, and go back where they

"By gracious, I'm glad to see that one go, anyhow!" Andy Green paused long enough in his headlong gallop

to shout to her. "I was going to sneak up and touch it off myself, if it wouldn't start any other way. Now you

and me'll get down to cases, girl, and have a settlement. And say!" He had started on, but he pulled up again.

"The Little Doctor's back here, somewhere. You go home with her when she goes, and stay till I come and

"Surefolks generally do. I'll tell her to stop for you. You know she'll be glad enough to have youand so

"Where is Buck?" Rosemary was the first person who asked that question. "I saw him ride up on the bench

"Dunnohaven't seen him. With his mother, I guess." Andy rode on to find Patsy and send him back down

the line with the water wagon. He did not think anything more about the Kid, though he thought a good deal

Now that her shack was burned, she would be easier to persuade into giving up that practically worthless

eighty. That was what filled the mind of Andy Green to the exclusion of everything else except the fire. He

was in a hurry to deliver his message to Patsy, so that he could hunt up the Little Doctor and speak her

hospitality for the girl he meant to marry just as soon as he could persuade her to stand with him before a

He found the Little Doctor still fighting a dogged battle with death for the life of the woman who laughed

wildly because her home was a heap of smoking embers. The Little Doctor told him to send Rosemary Allen

on down to the ranch, or take her himself, and to tell the Countess to send up her biggest medicine case

immediately. She could not leave, she said, for some time yet. She might have to stay all nightor she

would if there was any place to stay. She was half decided, she said, to have someone take the woman in to

Dry Lake right away, and up to the hospital in Great Falls. She supposed she would have to go along. Would

Andy tell J. G. to send up some money? Clothes didn't mattershe would go the way she was; there were

plenty of clothes in the stores, she declared. And would Andy rustle a team, right away, so they could start? If

they went at all they ought to catch the evening train. The Little Doctor was making her decisions and her

plans while she talked, as is the way with those strong natures who can act promptly and surely in the face of

By the time she had thought of having a team come right away, she had decided that she would not wait for

her medicinecase or for money. She could get all the money she needed in Dry Lake; and she had her little

emergency case with her. Since she was going to take the woman to a hospital, she said, there was no great

need of more than she had with her. She was a thoughtful Little Doctor. At the last minute she detained Andy

long enough to urge him to see that Miss Allen helped herself to clothes or anything she needed; and to send

a goodbye message to Chipin case he did not show up before she leftand a kiss to her manchild.

Andy was lucky. He met a man driving a good team and spring wagon, with a barrel of water in the back. He

promptly dismounted and helped the man unload the waterbarrel where it was, and sent him bumping

swiftly over the burned sod to where the Little Doctor waited. So Fate was kinder to the Little Doctor than

were those who would wring anew the mother heart of her that their own petty schemes might succeed. She

went away with the sick woman laughing crazily because all the little black shacks were burned and now

everything was black so everything matched nicelynicely, thank you. She was terribly worried over the

woman's condition, and she gave herself wholly to her professional zeal and never dreamed that her manchild

was at that moment riding deeper and deeper into the Badlands with a tricky devil of a man, looking for a

Neither did Chip dream it, nor any of the Happy Family, nor even Miss Rosemary Allen, until they rode

down into Flying U Coulee at suppertime and were met squarely by the fact that the Kid was not there. The

Old Man threw the bomb that exploded tragedy in the midst of the little group. He heard that "Dell" had gone

to take a sick woman to the hospital in Great Falls, and would not be back for a day or so, probably.

Chip stared blankly at him, and turned his eyes finally to Andy's face. Andy had not mentioned the Kid to

"He wasn't with her," Andy replied to the look. "She sent him a kiss and word that he was to take care of

"Well, he ain't. I was looking fer him myself," put in the Countess sharply. "Somebody shut the cat up in the

flour chest and I didn't study much on what it was done it! If I'd a got my hands on 'im"

"I saw him ride up on the hill trail just before the fire started," volunteered Rosemary Allen. "I had my opera

glasses and was looking for him, because I like to meet him and hear him talk. He said yesterday that he was

coming to see me today. And he rode up on the hill in sight of my claim. I saw him." She stopped and looked

"Listen," she went on hastily. "Maybe it has nothing to do with Buckbut I saw something else that was

very puzzling. I was going to investigate, but the fire broke out immediately and put everything else out of

my mind. A man was up on that sharppointed knoll off east of the trail where it leaves this coulee, and he

had field glasses and was looking for something over this way. I thought he was watching the trail. I just

caught him with the glasses by accident as I swung them over the edge of the benchland to get the trail

focused. He was watching somethingbecause I kept turning the glasses on him to see what he was doing.

"Then Buck came into sight, and I started to ride out and meet him. I hate to leave the little mite riding alone

anywhereI'm always afraid something may happen. But before I got on my horse I took another look at

this man on the hill. He had a mirror or something bright in his hands. I saw it flash, just exactly as though he

was signaling to someoneover that way." She pointed to the west. "He kept looking that way, and then

back this way; and he covered up the, piece of mirror with his hand and then took it off and let it shine a

"I got my horse and started to meet little Buck. He was coming along the trail and rode into a little hollow out

of sight. I kept looking and looking toward Dry Lakebecause the man looked that way, I guess. And in a

"Who was that man?" Andy took a step toward her, his eyes hard and bright in their inflamed lids.

"Good Lord, what fools!" He brushed past her without a look or another word, so intent was he upon this

fresh disaster. "I'm going after the boys, Chip. You better come along and see if you can pick up the Kid's

trail where he left the road. It's too bad Florence Grace Hallman ain't a man! I'd know better what to do if she

"Doggone it, if she's tried any of her schemes with fire andwhy, doggone it, being a woman ain't going to

help her none!" The Old Man, also, seemed to grasp the meaning of it almost as quickly as had Andy. "Chip,

you have Ole hitch up the team. I'm going to town myself, by thunder, and see if she's going to play any of

her tricks on this outfit and git away with it! Burnt out half her doggoned colony tryin' to git a whack at you

boys! Where's my shoes? Doggone it, what yuh all standin' round with your jaws hangin' down for? We'll see

The Countess found his shoes, and his hat, and his second best coat and his driving gloves which he had not

worn for more months than anyone cared to reckon. Miss Rosemary Allen did what she could to help, and

wondered at the dominant note struck by this bald old man from the moment when he rose stiffly from his big

While the team was being made ready the Old Man limped here and there, collecting things he did not need

and trying to remember what he must have, and keeping the Countess moving at a flurried trot. Chip and

Andy were not yet up the bluff when the Old Man climbed painfully into the covered buggy, took the lines

and the whip and cut a circle with the wheels on the hardpacked earth as clean and as small as Chip himself

could have done, and went whirling through the big gate and across the creek and up the long slope beyond.

He shouted to the boys and they rode slowly until he overtook themthough their nerves were all on edge

and haste seemed to them the most important thing in the world. But habit is strongit was their Old Man

"You boys wait to git out after that Owens," he shouted when he passed them. "If they've got the Kid,

killing's too good for 'em!" The brown team went trotting up the grade with back straightened to the pull of

the lurching buggy, and nostrils flaring wide with excitement. The Old Man leaned sidewise and called back

"I'll have that woman arrested on suspicion uh setting prairie fires!" he called. "I'll git Blake after her. You git

that Owens if you haveto haze him to hell and back! Yuh don't want to worry about the Kid, Chipthey

ain't goin' to hurt him. All they want is to keep you boys huntin' high and low and combin' the breaks to find

The Kid wriggled uncomfortably in the saddle and glanced at the narrowbrowed face of H. J. Owens, who

was looking this way and that at the enfolding hills and scowling abstractedly. The Kid was only six, but he

was fairly good at reading moods and glances, having lived all his life amongst grownups.

"It's a pretty far ways to them baby bear cubs," he remarked. "I bet you're lost, oldtimer. It's awful easy to

"You shut up!" snarled H. J. Owens. The Kid had hit uncomfortably close to the truth.

"You shut up your own self, you darned pilgrim." the Kid flung back instantly. That was the way he learned

to say rude things; they were said to him and he remembered and gave them back in full measure.

"Say, I'll slap you if you call me that again." H. J. Owens, because he did not relish the task he had

undertaken, and because he had lost his bearing here in the confusion of hills and hollows and deep gullies,

"You darn pilgrim, you dassent slap me. If you do the bunch'll fix you, all right. I guess they'd just about kill

you. Daddy Chip would just knock the stuffin' outa you." He considered something very briefly, and then

tilted his small chin so that he looked more than ever like the Little Doctor. "I bet you was just lying all the

H. J. Owens laughed disagreeably, but he did not say whether or not the Kid was right in his conjecture. The

Kid pinched his lips together and winked very fast for a minute. Never, never in all the six years of his life

had anyone played him so shabby a trick. He knew what the laugh meant; it meant that this man had lied to

him and led him away down here in the hills where he had promised his Doctor Dell, crosshis heart, that

"What made you lie about them baby bear cubs?" he demanded. "I didn't want to come such a far ways."

"You keep quiet. I've heard about enough from you, young man. A little more of that and you'll get

"I'm a going home!" The Kid pulled Silver half around in the grassy gulch they were following. "And I'm

going to tell the bunch what you said. I bet the bunch'll make you hard to ketch, youyou sonagun!"

"Here! You come back here, young man!" H. J. Owens reached over and caught Silver's bridle. "You don't go

home till I let you go; see. You're going right along with me, if anybody should ask you. And you ain't going

to talk like that either. now mind!" He turned his pale blue eyes threateningly upon the Kid. "Not another

word out of you if you don't want a good thrashing. You come along and behave yourself or I'll cut your ears

The Kid's eyes blazed with anger. He did not flinch while he glared back at the man, and he did not seem to

care, just at that moment, whether he lost his ears or kept them. "You let go my horse!" he gritted. "You wait.

H. J. Owens hesitated, tempted to lay violent hands upon the small rebel. But he did not. He led Silver a rod

or two, found it awkward, since the way was rough and he was not much of a horseman, and in a few minutes

"You come on, Buck, and be a good boyand maybe we'll find them cubs yet," he conciliated. "You'd die

alaughing at the way they set up and scratch their ears when a big, black ant bites 'em, Buck. I'll show you

in a little while. And there's a funny camp down here, too, where we can get some supper."

The Kid made no reply, but he rode along docilely beside H. J. Owens and listened to the new story he told of

the bears. That is, he appeared to be listening; in reality he was struggling to solve the biggest problem he had

ever known the problem of danger and of treachery. Poor little tad, he did not even know the names of his

troubles. He only knew that this man had told him a lie about those baby bear cubs, and had brought him

away down here where he had been lost, and that it was getting dark and he wanted to go home and the man

was mean and would not let him go. He did not understand why the man should be so meanbut the man

was mean to him, and he did not intend to "stand for it." He wanted to go home. And when the Kid really

wanted to do a certain thing, he nearly always did it, as you may have observed.

H. J. Owens would not let him go home; therefore the Kid meant to go anyway. Only he would have to sneak

off, or run off, or something, and hide where the man could not find him, and then go home to his Doctor

Dell and Daddy Chip, and tell them how mean this pilgrim had been to him. And he would tell the bunch The

bunch would fix him all right! The thought cheered the Kid so that he smiled and made the man think he was

listening to his darned old bear story that was just a big lie. Think he would listen to any story that pilgrim

The gulches wore growing dusky now The Kid was tired, and he was hungry and could hardly keep from

crying, he was so miserable. But he was the son of his fatherhe was Chip's kid; it would take a great deal

more misery and unkindness to make him cry before this pilgrim who had been so mean to him. He rode

along without saying a word. H. J. Owens did not say anything, either. He kept scanning each jagged peak

and each gloomy canyon as they passed, and he seemed uneasy about something. The Kid knew what it was,

They came to a wide, flatbottomed coulee with high ragged bluffs shutting it in upon every side. The Kid

dimly remembered that coulee, because that was where Andy got down to tighten the cinch on Miss Allen's

horse, and looked up at her the way Daddy Chip looked at Doctor Dell sometimes, and made a kiss with his

He looked at the man, shut his mouth tight and wheeled Silver suddenly to the left. He leaned forward as he

had always seen the Happy Family do when they started a race, and struck Silver smartly down the rump with

the braided romal on his bridlereins. H. J. Owens was taken off his guard and did nothing but stare

openmouthed until the Kid was well under way; then he shouted and galloped after him, up the little flat.

He might as well have saved his horse's wind and his own energy. He was no match for little Buck Bennett,

who had the whole Flying U outfit to teach him how to ride, and the spirit of his Daddy Chip and the little

Doctor combined to give him grit and initiative. H. J. Owens pounded along to the head of the coulee, where

he had seen the Kid galloping dimly in the dusk. He turned up into the canyon that sloped invitingly up from

the level, and went on at the top speed of his horsewhich was not fast enough to boast about.

When he had left the coulee well behind him, the Kid rode out from behind a clump of bushes that was a

mere black shadow against the coulee wall, and turned back whence he had come. The Kid giggled a little

over the way he had fooled the pilgrim, and wished that the bunch had been there to see him do it. He kept

Silver galloping until he had reached the other end of the level, and then he pulled him down to a walk and let

the reins drop loosely upon Silver's neck. That was what Daddy Chip and the boys had told him he must do,

next time he got lost and did not know the way home. He must just let Silver go wherever he wanted to go,

and not try to guide him at all. Silver would go straight home; he had the word of the whole bunch for that,

Silver looked back inquiringly at his small rider, hesitated and then swung back up the coulee. The Kid was

afraid that H. J. Owens would come back and see him and cut off his ears if he went that waybut he did not

pull Silver back and make him go some other way, for all that. If he left him alone, Silver would take him

right straight home. Daddy Chip and the boys said so. And he would tell them how mean that man was. They

Halfway up the coulee Silver turned into a narrow gulch that seemed to lead nowhere at all except into the

side of a big, blackshadowed bluff. Up on the hillside a coyote began to yap with a shrill staccato of sounds

that trailed off into a disconsolate whimper. The Kid looked that way interestedly. He was not afraid of

coyotes. They would not hurt anyone; they were more scared than you werethe bunch had told him so. He

wished he could get a sight of him, though. He liked to see their ears stick up and their noses stick out in a

sharp point, and see them drop their tails and go sliding away out of sight. When he was ten and Daddy Chip

The coyote yapped shrilly again, and the Kid wondered what his Doctor Dell would say when he got home.

He was terribly hungry, and he was tired and wanted to go to bed. He wished the bunch would happen along

and fix that man. His heart swelled in his chest with rage and disappointment when he thought of those baby

bear cubs that were not anywhere at allbecause the man was just lying all the time. In spite of himself the

Kid cried whimperingly to himself while he rode slowly up the gorge which Silver had chosen to follow

because the reins were drooping low alongside his neck and he might go where he pleased.

By and by the moon rose and lightened the hills so that they glowed softly; and the Kid, looking sleepily

around him, saw a coyote slinking along a barren slope. He was going to shout at it and see it run, but he

thought of the man who was looking for him and glanced fearfully over his shoulder. The moon shone full in

The Kid thought he must be going wrong, because at the ranch the moon came up in another place altogether.

He knew about the moon. Doctor Dell had explained to him how it just kept going round and round the world

and you saw it when it came up over the edge. That was how Santa Claus found out if kids were good; he

lived in the moon, and it went round and round so he could look down and see if you were bad. The Kid

rubbed the tears off his cheeks with his palm, so that Santa Claus could not see that he had been crying. After

that he rode bravely, with a consciously straight spine, because Santa Claus was looking at him all the time

After a long while the way grew less rough, and Silver trotted down the easier slopes. The Kid was pretty

tired now. He held on by the horn of his saddle so Silver would not jolt him so much. He was terribly hungry,

too, and his eyes kept going shut. But Santa Claus kept looking at him to see if he were a dead game sport, so

he did not cry any more. He wished he had some grub in a sack, but he thought he must be nearly home now.

He had come a terribly far ways since he ran away from that pilgrim who was going to cut off his ears.

The Kid was so sleepy, and so tired that he almost fell out of the saddle once when Silver, who had been

loping easily across a fairly level stretch of ground, slowed abruptly to negotiate a washout crossing. He had

been thinking about those baby bear cubs digging ants and eating them. He had almost seen them doing it;

but he remembered now that he was going home to tell the bunch how the man had lied to him and tried to

make him stay down here. The bunch would sure fix him when they heard about that.

He was still thinking vengefully of the punishment which the Happy Family would surely mete out to H. J.

Owens when Silver lifted his head, looked off to the right and gave a shrill whinny. Somebody shouted, and

immediately a couple of horsemen emerged from the shadow of a hill and galloped toward him.

The Kid gave a cry and then laughed. It was his Daddy Chip and somebody. He thought the other was Andy

Green. He was too tired to kick Silver in the ribs and race toward them. He waited until they came up, their

Chip rode up and lifted the Kid bodily from the saddle and held him so tight in his arms that the Kid kicked

half heartedly with both feet, to free himself. But he had a message for his Daddy Chip, and as soon as he

"Daddy Chip, I just want you to kill that damn' pilgrim!" he commanded. "There wasn't any baby bear cubs at

all. He was just astringin' me. And he was going to cut off my ears. He said it wasn't a far ways to where the

baby bear cubs lived with the old mother bear, and it was. I wish you'd lick the stuffin' outa him. I'm awful

"We'll be home pretty quick," Chip said in a queer, choked voice. "Who was the man, Buck? Where is he

The Kid lifted his head sleepily from his Daddy Chip's shoulder and pointed vaguely toward the moon. "He's

the man that jumped Andy's ranch right on the edge of One Man," he explained. "He's back there ridin' the

rimrocks a lookin' for me. I'd a come home before, only he wouldn't let me come. He said he'd cut my ears

off. I runned away from him, Daddy Chip. And I cussed him a plenty for lying to mebut you needn't tell

"I won't, Buck." Chip lifted him into a more comfortable position and held him so. While the Kid slept he

talked with Andy about getting the Happy Family on the trail of H. J. Owens. Then he rode thankfully home

They found H. J. Owens the next forenoon wandering hopelessly lost in the hills. Since killing him was

barred, they tied his arms behind him and turned him toward the Flying U. He was sullen, like an animal that

is trapped and will do nothing but lie flattened to the ground and glare redeyed at its captors. For that matter,

the Happy Family themselves were pretty sullen. They had fought fire for hoursand that is killing work;

and they had been in the saddle ever since, looking for the Kid and for this man who rode bound in their

Weary and Irish and Pink, who had run across him in a narrow canyon, fired pistolshot signals to bring the

others to the spot. But when the others emerged from various points upon the scene, there was very little said

In town, the Old man had been quite as eager to come close to Florence Grace Hallmanbut he was not so

lucky. Florence Grace had heard the news of the fire a good half hour before the train left for Great Falls.

She would have preferred a train going the other way, but she decided not to wait. She watched the sick

woman put aboard the one Pullman coach, and then she herself went into the stuffy daycoach. Florence

Grace Hallman was not in the habit of riding in daycoaches in the nighttime when there was a Pullman

sleeper attached to the train. She did not stop at Great Falls; she went on to Butteand from there I do not

That, of course, simplified matters considerably for Florence Graceand for the Happy Family as well. For

at the preliminary hearing of H. J. Owens for the high crime of kidnapping, that gentleman proceeded to

unburden his soul in a way that would have horrified Florence Grace, had she been there to hear. Remember,

A man of whom you have never heard tried to slip out of the court room during the unburdening process, and

was stopped by Andy Green, who had been keeping an eye on him for the simple reason that the fellow had

been much in the company of H. J. Owens during the week preceding the fire and the luring away of the Kid.

The sheriff led him off somewhereand so they had the man who had set the prairie afire.

As is the habit of those who confess easily the crimes of others, H. J. Owens professed himself as innocent as

he consistently could in the face of the Happy Family and of the Kid's loudwhispered remarks when he saw

him there. He knew absolutely nothing about the fire, he said, and had nothing to do with the setting of it. He

And then Miss Rosemary Allen took the witness stand and told about the man on the hilltop and the bit of

H.J. Owens crimpled down visibly in his chair. Imagine for yourself the trouble he would have in convincing

Just to satisfy your curiosity, at the trial a month later he failed absolutely to convince the jury that he was

anything but what he wasa criminal without the strength to stand by his own friends. He was sentenced to

ten years in Deer Lodge, and the judge informed him that he had been dealt with leniently at that, because

after all he was only a tool in the hands of the real instigator of the crime. That real instigator, by the way,

The other manhe who had set fire to the prairiegot six years, and cursed the judge and threatened the

whole Happy Family with death when the sentence was passed upon himas so many guilty men do.

To go back to that preliminary, trial: The Happy Family, when H. J. Owens was committed safely to the

county jail, along with the firebug, took the next train to Great Falls with witnesses and the Honorable

Blake. They filed their answers to the contests two days before the timelimit had expired. You may call that

shaving too close the margin of safety. But the Happy family did not worry over thatseeing there was a

margin of safety. Nor did they worry over the outcome of the matter. With the Homeseekers' Syndicate in

extremely bad repute, and with fully half of the colonists homeless and disgusted, why should they worry

They planned great things with their irrigation scheme.... I am not going to tell any more about them just

now. Some of you will complain, and want to know a good many things that have not been told in detail. But

if I should try to satisfy you, there would be no more meetings between you and the Happy Familysince

So I am not even going to tell you whether Andy succeeded in persuading Miss Rosemary Allen to go with

him to the parson. Nor whether the Happy Family really did settle down to raise families and alfalfa and

You may take a look at them as they go trailing contentedly away from the landoffice, with their hats tilted

at various characteristic angles and their wellknown voices mingled in more or less joyful converse, and

their toes pointed toward Central Avenue and certain liquid refreshments. You need not worry over that

bunch, surely. You may safely leave them to meet future problems and emergencies as they have always met

them in the paston their feet, with eyes that do not wave or flinch, shoulder to shoulder, ready alike far grin

15. CHAPTER 12. SHACKS, LIVE STOCK AND PILGRIMS PROMPTLY AND PAINFULLY REMOVED, page = 56