onby was speaking somewhat dejectedly.

"It seems to me that we have only gone round," he said. "It has cost us
more dollars than any of us care to reckon, and I for one am tolerably
near the end of my tether."

"So are the homestead-boys. We can last them out, and we have got to,"
said somebody.

Allonby raised his hand with a little hopeless gesture. "I'm not quite
sure; but what I want to show you is that we have come back to the place
we started from. When we first met here we decided that it was advisable
to put down Larry Grant, and though we have not accomplished it yet, it
seems to me more necessary than ever just now."

"I don't understand you," said one of the younger men. "Larry's boys have
broken loose from him, and he can't worry anybody much alone."

Torrance glanced at Allonby with a sardonic twinkle in his eyes. "That
sounds very like sense," he said.

"Well," said Allonby drily, "it isn't, and I think you know it at least as
well as I do. It is because the boys have broken out we want to get our
thumb on Larry."

There was a little murmur of bewilderment, for men were present that night
who had not attended many meetings of the district committee.

"You will have to make it plainer," somebody said.

Allonby glanced at Torrance, who nodded, and then went on. "Now, I know
that what I am going to tell you does not sound nice, and a year ago I
would have had unpleasant thoughts of the man who suggested any course of
that kind to me; but we have got to go under or pull down the enemy. The
legislature are beginning to look at things with the homesteaders' eyes,
and what we want is popular sympathy. We lost a good chance of getting it
over the stock-train. Larry was too clever for us again, and that brings
me to the point which should be quite plain. The homestead-boys have lost
their heads and will cut their own throats if they are let alone. They are
ripe for ranch-burning and firing on the cavalry, and once they start the
State will have to step in and whip them out for us."

"But where does Larry come in?" asked somebody.

"That," said Clavering, "is quite easy. So long as Larry is loose he will
have a following, and somehow he will hear of and stop their wildest
moves. As most of you know, I don't like him; but Larry is not a fool."

"To be quite plain, we are to cut out the restraining influence, and give
the rabble a free hand to let loose anarchy," said one man. "Then, you can
strike me of