e it!" cried Bud.

"Hurray! We're with you!" exclaimed Nort.

"When does the fighting begin!" Dick wanted to know, and almost
unconsciously he looked at his "gun."

"We're going to start a camp at Spur Creek right away, and keep some
one on guard there constantly," declared Mr. Merkel. "If signs and
past performances go for anything, some Mexicans, a few Greasers and a
bunch of sheep herders will pour in through the pass and pre-empt
everything along Spur Creek any time now. Certain land along Spur
Creek did belong to the Indians and as such the government can throw it
open to those whose other holdings don't bar them--as I am barred.

"But I don't intend any Greasers or sheep herders shall take the land I
bought and paid for, even if they have managed to steal my title deeds
and other papers, without which I can't prove my claim. I'm going to
fight!" said the ranch owner vigorously.

"And we're with you!" cried Nort, as he tapped his gun.

I do not wish you to understand that the boy ranchers were a blood
thirsty trio of "gun-men." As I have explained, you don't always need
a gun in the West, but when you do require it the need is generally
urgent. Nor are the "guns" (by which term are meant revolvers of large
caliber) used in desperate fights against human beings. In the main
the guns are used with blank cartridges to direct a bunch of cattle in
the way it is desired they should go. Frequently a fusilade of shots,
harmless enough in themselves, will serve to turn a stampede which
stampede, if not stopped, would result in the death of hundreds of
animals who would blindly hurl themselves over a cliff.

Of course there are bad men in the west now, as there used to be,
though perhaps not so many, and near the Mexican border roving bands of
Indians or half-breeds often try to run off bunches of cattle. In such
cases guns with bullets instead of blank cartridges are urgently needed.

Then, too, enemies other than human are occasionally met with. In
winter wolves may prowl about, driven desperate by hunger. There is an
occasional rattlesnake to be shot up, and so, all in all, a cowboy
without a gun would not fit in the picture at all. Though I don't want
you to get the idea that the boy ranchers were desperate characters,
willing to "pull a gun" on the slightest provocation. The guns were
for service, not for bravado.

"Are you going to start a regular camp at Spur Creek, Dad?" asked Bud.

"That's my