reckon yuh found it," Billy prompted impatiently.

"I did. I followed the creek until I came to the ditch Mr. Brown has
been digging. I found that he had it finished and was filling it from
the creek in order to test it. I believe," he added dryly, "he found
the result very satisfying--to himself. The ditch carried the whole
creek without any trouble, and there was plenty of room at the top for
more!"

"Hell!" said Billy, just as Dill knew he would say. "But he can't take
out any more than his water-right calls for," he added. "Yuh got a
water right along with the ranch, didn't yuh say?"

"I got three--the third, fourth, and fifth. I have looked into the
matter very closely in the last week. I find that we can have all the
water there is--after Brown gets through. His rights are the first
and second, and will cover all the water the creek will carry, if he
chooses to use them to the limit. I suspect he was looking for some
sort of protest from me, for he had the papers in his pocket and
showed them to me. I afterward investigated, as I said, and found the
case to be exactly as I have stated."

Billy stared long at his horse's ears. "Well, he can't use the whole
creek," he said at last, "not unless he just turned it loose to be
mean, and I don't believe he can waste water even if he does hold the
rights. We can mighty quick put a stop to that. Do yuh know anything
about injunctions? If yuh don't, yuh better investigate 'em a
lot--because I don't know a damn' thing about the breed, and we're
liable to need 'em bad."

"I believe I may truthfully say that I understand the uses--and
misuses--of injunctions, William. In the East they largely take the
place of guns as fighting weapons, and I think I may say without
boasting that I can hit the bull's-eye with them as well as most men.
But suppose Mr. Brown _uses_ the water? Suppose there is none left to
turn back into the creek channel when he is through? He has a large
force of men at work running laterals from the main ditch, which
carries the water up and over the high land, and I took the liberty of
following his lines of stakes. As you would put it, William, he seems
about to irrigate the whole of northern Montana; certainly his stakes
cover the whole creek bottom, both above and below the main ditch, and
also the bench land above."

"Hell! Anything else?"

"I believe not--except that he has completed his fencing and has
turned in a large number of cattle. I say c