sat for a
time as though seeking a loophole of escape from his ultimatum. At last he
lifted his head and looked at the cowman with a listless eye.

"All right," he said, hopelessly; "I'll be gone by that time."

And, without further words, he wheeled his horse slowly and rode back to
the camp. As he rode he maintained his dejected attitude, but his mind was
actively laying plans for the overthrow of Bissell. Under the mask of
seeming defeat he sought to find means for an unexpected victory.

Though his whole being rose in revolt against the arbitrary claims of the
cattle king, he had become so hardened to this injustice everywhere that
he no longer wasted his time or strength in vain railings against it.
Instinctively he felt that this was to be a struggle of strength against
cunning, for the very thought of physical resistance to thirty fighting
cowboys by half a dozen herders was ridiculous.

Many similar skirmishes, both on his home ranch and on the trail, had
sharpened Larkin's wits for emergencies, and it was with really no spirit
of humble complaisance that he faced the future. Much, however, depended
on the result of Sim's explorations.

By the time Larkin arrived at the camp the visiting cowmen had
disappeared. But this did not mean for a moment that they had all returned
to the Bar T ranch house. Merely to top the first hill would have been to
see a horse with hanging bridle, and a cow-puncher near by camped on the
trail that led to the north.

As fortune would have it, Sims slunk into camp just at the dinner hour.

"What'd they say to yuh?" he asked abruptly. "I seen the confab from over
on that hogback yonder."

The herder's respect for his employer sometimes diminished to the
vanishing point.

"Got to clear out in twenty-four hours or take what's comin'."

"What'd'ye tell 'em?"

"I said we would."

The lank herder started back in amazement.

"Oh, blazes!" he grieved. "That I should've ever took on with a milksop
boss. I'm plumb disgraced--" His voice trailed off into silence as he
recognized the twinkle in Larkin's eye. "Oh, I see what yuh mean," he
apologized, with a wide grin. "We'll clear out all right. Oh, yes! Sure!"

He sat down.

"Depends on you a good deal," remarked Bud, shoving the beans toward him.
"What did you find this morning?"

"Found a new way north," was the muffled and laconic reply. "Yaas," he
continued presently, after regarding his reflection in the bottom of a tin
c