ns for reconstruction.

"That's their last shot," he said. "We're only delayed--that's all.
We lost a few fences. Posts are free for the cutting and most of the
wire can be restrung. New wire is cheap. The corral poles are
scattered right on the spot; only the posts broken off. We can set
more posts and throw up the new corrals in two days. The homestead
cabins are only charred. The old buildings at the ranch are gone.
I'll put a crew in the hills getting out new logs and there'll be
enough out-of-job peelers riding grub-line to rebuild the whole place.
We can put up a few tents for the hands till the new bunk house is
built. We've got our land. The hay is tramped flat right now but the
roots aren't hurt. Next spring will show the whole flat coming up with
a heavy stand of hay."

"You're a good partner, Cal," she said. "You've done your best. But
the whole thing would only happen over again. Slade's too strong for
us."

"Slade's through!" he asserted again. "He's locked up and when he gets
out his hands will be tied. Inside of a month the law will be in the
saddle for the first time in years. Public sentiment is running that
way. All it ever needed was a start. Once Alden gets a grip on
things, with folks behind him, he'll never lose it again. From now on
you'll see every wild one cut short in his career. Folks will be busy
pointing them out instead of helping them cover it up."

He painted the future of the Three Bar as the foremost outfit within a
hundred miles, but her mind was busy with a future so entirely
different from the one he portrayed that she scarcely grasped his
words. She felt a vague sense of relief that there was no decision for
her to make. It had been made for her and against her will, but it was
done. Always she had heard her parents speak of the day when they
should go back home; and she had always felt that the day would come
when she too would live in the place from which they had come,--with
frequent trips back to the range. The love for the ranch had delayed
her departure from year to year. But now the old familiar buildings
were gone and there were no ties to hold her here, or even to call her
back once she was gone.

Harris rose and pointed, rousing her from her abstraction. Down in the
valley below them filed a long line of dusty horsemen. Behind them
came two men wrangling a pack string carrying equipment for a long
campaign.

"There is the law!" he said.