stem of irrigating ditches that Derrick and I have been
laying out. There's thousands of dollars in that!"

"I'll fight this out till I've spent every cent of my money."

"Where? In the courts that the company owns?"

"Think I am going to give in to this? Think I am to get off my land? By
God, gentlemen, law or no law, railroad or no railroad, I--WILL--NOT."

"Nor I."

"Nor I."

"Nor I."

"This is the last. Legal means first; if those fail--the shotgun."

"They can kill me. They can shoot me down, but I'll die--die fighting
for my home--before I'll give in to this."

At length Annixter made himself heard:

"All out of the room but the ranch owners," he shouted. "Hooven,
Caraher, Dyke, you'll have to clear out. This is a family affair.
Presley, you and your friend can remain."

Reluctantly the others filed through the door. There remained in the
harness room--besides Vanamee and Presley--Magnus Derrick, Annixter, old
Broderson Harran, Garnett from the Ruby rancho, Keast from the ranch of
the same name, Gethings of the San Pablo, Chattern of the Bonanza, about
a score of others, ranchers from various parts of the county, and, last
of all, Dabney, ignored, silent, to whom nobody spoke and who, as yet,
had not uttered a word. But the men who had been asked to leave the
harness room spread the news throughout the barn. It was repeated from
lip to lip. One by one the guests dropped out of the dance. Groups were
formed. By swift degrees the gayety lapsed away. The Virginia reel
broke up. The musicians ceased playing, and in the place of the noisy,
effervescent revelry of the previous half hour, a subdued murmur filled
all the barn, a mingling of whispers, lowered voices, the coming and
going of light footsteps, the uneasy shifting of positions, while from
behind the closed doors of the harness room came a prolonged, sullen
hum of anger and strenuous debate. The dance came to an abrupt end.
The guests, unwilling to go as yet, stunned, distressed, stood clumsily
about, their eyes vague, their hands swinging at their sides, looking
stupidly into each others' faces. A sense of impending calamity,
oppressive, foreboding, gloomy, passed through the air overhead in the
night, a long shiver of anguish and of terror, mysterious, despairing.

In the harness room, however, the excitement continued unchecked. One
rancher after another delivered himself of a torrent of furious words.
There was no order, merely the frenzied ou