n your place, Lem?" asked Wade.

"Badly, Gordon. That's one reason I rode over to see you. Have you heard
about the fight on my range? You haven't?"

"I didn't have time last night to tell him," Dorothy interposed.

"A number of my boys got into a shooting affray with some herders,"
Trowbridge explained. "Two of the boys were hurt and one of the herders,
I understand, was badly shot."

"Too bad," Wade commented. "Confound it, Lem, what are these fellows
thinking of? They must know that our patience won't last always, and
when it breaks we're ten to their one."

"Well,"--Trowbridge deftly flecked his cigarette stub over the porch
railing,--"I'm through now, Gordon. I've given my men orders to stand
for no more nonsense. I've told them to shoot at the drop of the hat,
and I'll stand behind 'em, law or no law. The next time there's trouble,
and it's likely to come any hour, I'm going to lead my outfit into a
fight that'll be some fight, believe me. And I'm not going to quit until
every sheep man in the county is headed East on the run."

"We'll be with you," Wade said heartily. "Tip us the word and we'll be
right after you."

Trowbridge nodded.

"I'll take you up on that, Gordon. Not that we need help, you
understand, but because it'll be best for us to present a united front
in this business. United, we stand; divided, we fall; that's the word,
eh?"

Dorothy leaned forward, with an anxious look.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "I hope neither one of you will get shot."

Trowbridge made her a bow from his chair.

"We'll try not to," he said mockingly, and she was obliged to join in
the general laugh.

"If you feel that you ought to do it, of course you will--fight, I
mean," she said, helplessly. "But I think it's dreadful, all the same."

"What has Thomas done about me?" Wade asked. "I understand that he's
holding quite a bunch of warrants up his sleeve?"

"I don't think he's done anything, and I don't believe he's anxious to,"
Trowbridge answered. "He's shown some courage, that fellow, in the past,
but I always thought he had a yellow streak in him somewhere. I don't
think you need fear him much."

"Well, I'm glad to know that, not that I've been very uneasy, but we've
had to keep a pretty close look-out here, and it's doubled us up
uncomfortably. I want to go out to my timber claim this afternoon, and
but for what you've said, I know Bill would insist on going along. Now I
can leave him here to attend to his wo