to be any dead men hereabouts, I cal'late we can fix
it so it won't be us."

Sewall and Dow began cutting timber for the house in a thick grove of
cottonwoods two or three hundred yards from the river, keeping a
weather eye open for trouble. A day or two after Dow's return from the
round-up, one of the Marquis's men rode up to them where they were
working.

"There's a vigilance committee around, I hear," he remarked casually.
"You haven't seen anything of 'em yet hereabouts, have you? I hear
they're considerin' makin' a call on you folks."

The men from Maine said to each other that the thing began to look
"smoky." They consulted Captain Robins, who agreed that "smoky" was
the word, and they carried rifles after that when they went to cut
timber.

For they knew very well that the hint which the Marquis's man had
lightly thrown out was no idle attempt at intimidation based on
nothing but the hope that the Easterners were timid. The activities of
Granville Stuart's raiders had stimulated the formation of other
vigilance committees, inspired in part by less lofty motives than
those which impelled the president of the Montana Stockgrowers'
Association and his friends. On the border between Dakota and Montana
a company of rough characters who called themselves vigilantes began
to make themselves the topic of excited conversation. They were said
to be after horse-thieves, but it became noticeable that their
activities seemed to be directed mainly against the small ranchers on
the edge of the Bad Lands. It was rumored that certain large ranchmen
were backing them in the hope of driving the "nesters" out of the
country.

The cowmen here are opposed, not only to the Indians, but
also to white settlers [wrote the Western correspondent of
the New York _Sun_]. They want the land these white and red
settlers are taking up. Vast tracts--uncultivated ranges,
not settlements--are what they desire. The small holder--the
man with a little bunch of cattle--is not wanted. They
freeze him out. Somehow he loses cattle, or they are killed
by parties unknown.

Sewall and Dow had a right to keep their guns near them while they
were at work in the grove on Elkhorn Bottom.

Meanwhile, the endeavors of Granville Stuart's vigilantes were having
their results. The precipitous methods of the "stranglers," as they
were grimly called, began to give the most hardened "the creeps." Who
the "stranglers" t