re hate to make your home-comin' unhappy," he said, with
evidence of agitation, "but so help me God I have to do it!"

"Dad, you called me Prodigal, an' I reckon you were right. I've
shirked my duty to you. I'm ready now to make up for it," replied
Jean, feelingly.

"Wal, wal, shore thats fine-spoken, my boy.... Let's set down heah an'
have a long talk. First off, what did Jim Blaisdell tell you?"

Briefly Jean outlined the neighbor rancher's conversation. Then Jean
recounted his experience with Colter and concluded with Blaisdell's
reception of the sheepman's threat. If Jean expected to see his father
rise up like a lion in his wrath he made a huge mistake. This news of
Colter and his talk never struck even a spark from Gaston Isbel.

"Wal," he began, thoughtfully, "reckon there are only two points in
Jim's talk I need touch on. There's shore goin' to be a Grass Valley
war. An' Jim's idea of the cause of it seems to be pretty much the
same as that of all the other cattlemen. It 'll go down a black blot
on the history page of the Tonto Basin as a war between rival sheepmen
an' cattlemen. Same old fight over water an' grass! ... Jean, my son,
that is wrong. It 'll not be a war between sheepmen an' cattlemen. But
a war of honest ranchers against rustlers maskin' as sheep-raisers! ...
Mind you, I don't belittle the trouble between sheepmen an' cattlemen
in Arizona. It's real an' it's vital an' it's serious. It 'll take law
an' order to straighten out the grazin' question. Some day the
government will keep sheep off of cattle ranges.... So get things right
in your mind, my son. You can trust your dad to tell the absolute
truth. In this fight that 'll wipe out some of the Isbels--maybe all
of them--you're on the side of justice an' right. Knowin' that, a man
can fight a hundred times harder than he who knows he is a liar an' a
thief."

The old rancher wiped his perspiring face and breathed slowly and
deeply. Jean sensed in him the rise of a tremendous emotional strain.
Wonderingly he watched the keen lined face. More than material worries
were at the root of brooding, mounting thoughts in his father's eyes.

"Now next take what Jim said aboot your comin' to chase these
sheep-herders out of the valley.... Jean, I started that talk. I had my
tricky reasons. I know these greaser sheep-herders an' I know the
respect Texans have for a gunman. Some say I bragged. Some say I'm an
old fool in his dotage, ravi