flat right now--the way it stands--than three thousand head
of cows on the range and no land at all. We can rebuild the place this
winter while work is slack. Build better than before. Those buildings
were pretty old, at best. There'll be enough hungry cowhands riding
grub-line at the Three Bar to rebuild it in two months. Every man that
feeds on us this winter will have to work."

His enthusiasm failed to touch her. For her the Three Bar was wrecked,
the old home gone, and her gaze kept straying back to the eddying black
smoke-cloud at the foot of the hills.

XV

They rode from the devastated fields and angled southwest across the
range. Harris pointed out the calves along their course.

"Look at those chunky little youngsters," he said. "Nearly every one
is good red stock. Only a scattering few that threw back to off-color
shades. This grading-up process doesn't take long to show."

When some ten miles from the Three Bar he dismounted on a ridge and she
joined him, listening with entire indifference to his optimistic plans.

"We're only scratched," he said. "It won't matter in the end."

"This is the end," she dissented. "The Three Bar is done."

"It's just the start," he returned. "It's the end for them! Don't you
see? They staked everything on one big raid that would smash the Three
Bar and discourage the rest from duplicating our move. That would give
Slade a new lease of life--delay the inevitable for a few more years.
They made one final attempt and lost."

"Did they lose?" she inquired. "I thought they'd won."

"They're through!" he asserted positively. "Slade is locked up.
Inside of a week the sheriff would have cleaned out the Breaks. It was
my fault this happened. With Slade locked up and Morrow dead it didn't
occur to me that anything was planned ahead. If the albino had lived
he'd never have run his neck into a noose by a raid like this. But
Lang was born without brains. Slade could hire him for anything."

"Can you prove this on Slade?" she demanded. It was the first sign of
interest she had shown. Deep under her numbed indifference a thought
persisted,--a hope that Slade, the man who had brought about the raid,
should be made to pay. Harris shook his head.

"As usual, Slade's in the clear," he said. "There's been a rumor
afloat which would be considered sufficient cause for Lang's men to
raid the Three Bar without other incentive."

He resumed his glowing pla