Government beef contracts. There's been some shootin' back an' forth
an' there's liable to be a whole lot more. The Lazy S M--that's the
Snaith-McRobert brand--claims the whole Pecos country by priority. The
old man ain't recognizin' any such fool title. He's got more 'n thirty
thousand head of cattle there an' he'll fight for the grass if he has to.
O' course there's plenty of room for everybody if it wasn't for the beef
contracts an' the general bad feelin'."

"Don't you reckon it will be settled peaceably? They'll get together an'
talk it over like reasonable folks."

Billie shook his head. "The Lazy S M are bringin' in a lot of bad men
from Texas an' the Strip. Some of our boys ain't exactly gun-shy either.
One of these days there's sure goin' to be sudden trouble."

"I'm no gunman," protested Clanton indignantly. "I hired out to the
old man to punch cows. Whyfor should I take any chances with the
Snaith-McRobert outfit when I ain't got a thing in the world against
them?"

"No, you're no gunman," grinned his friend in amiable derision.
"Jimmie-Go-Get-'Em is a quiet little Sunday-go-to-meetin' kid. It was
kinder by accident that he bumped off four Apaches an' a halfbreed the
other day."

"Now don't you blame me for that, Billie. You was hell-bent on goin' into
the Roubideau place an' I trailed along. When you got yore pill in the
laig you made me ride up the gulch alone. I claim I wasn't to blame for
them Mescaleros. I wasn't either."

Prince had made his prophecy about the coming trouble lightly. He could
not guess that the most terrible feud in the history of the West was to
spring out of the quarrel between Snaith and Webb, a border war so grim
and deadly that within three years more than a hundred lusty men were to
fall in battle and from assassination. It would have amazed him to know
that the bullet which laid low the renegade in Shoot-a-Buck Canon had set
the spark to the evil passions which resulted in what came to be called
the Washington County War. Least of all could he tell that the girl-faced
boy riding beside him was to become the best-known character of all the
desperate ones engaged in the trouble.

Chapter VIII

The Fight

Half a dozen cowboys cantered up the main street of Los Portales in a
cloud of dust. One of them, older than the rest, let out the wild yell he
had known in the days when he rode with Quantrell's guerrillas on the
infamous raids of that bandit. A second flung int