st, kept time with his words. "But seein' you're one of the Isbels,
I'll hev my say whether you want it or not. My name's Colter an' I'm
one of the sheepmen Gass Isbel's riled with."

"Colter. Glad to meet you," replied Jean. "An' I reckon who riled my
father is goin' to rile me."

"Shore. If thet wasn't so you'd not be an Isbel," returned Colter,
with a grim little laugh. "It's easy to see you ain't run into any
Tonto Basin fellers yet. Wal, I'm goin' to tell you thet your old man
gabbed like a woman down at Greaves's store. Bragged aboot you an' how
you could fight an' how you could shoot an' how you could track a hoss
or a man! Bragged how you'd chase every sheep herder back up on the
Rim.... I'm tellin' you because we want you to git our stand right.
We're goin' to run sheep down in Grass Valley."

"Ahuh! Well, who's we?" queried Jean, curtly.

"What-at? ... We--I mean the sheepmen rangin' this Rim from Black Butte
to the Apache country."

"Colter, I'm a stranger in Arizona," said Jean, slowly. "I know little
about ranchers or sheepmen. It's true my father sent for me. It's
true, I dare say, that he bragged, for he was given to bluster an'
blow. An' he's old now. I can't help it if he bragged about me. But
if he has, an' if he's justified in his stand against you sheepmen, I'm
goin' to do my best to live up to his brag."

"I get your hunch. Shore we understand each other, an' thet's a
powerful help. You take my hunch to your old man," replied Colter, as
he turned his horse away toward the left. "Thet trail leadin' south is
yours. When you come to the Rim you'll see a bare spot down in the
Basin. Thet 'll be Grass Valley."

He rode away out of sight into the woods. Jean leaned against his
horse and pondered. It seemed difficult to be just to this Colter, not
because of his claims, but because of a subtle hostility that emanated
from him. Colter had the hard face, the masked intent, the turn of
speech that Jean had come to associate with dishonest men. Even if Jean
had not been prejudiced, if he had known nothing of his father's
trouble with these sheepmen, and if Colter had met him only to exchange
glances and greetings, still Jean would never have had a favorable
impression. Colter grated upon him, roused an antagonism seldom felt.

"Heigho!" sighed the young man, "Good-by to huntin' an' fishing'! Dad's
given me a man's job."

With that he mounted his horse and started the pack mule