l
from the rider's hands, and hurled his comrade backwards, while some of
the stockriders pushed their horses nearer, and the axe-men closed in
about them.

Hoarse cries went up. "Horses back! Pull him off! Give the Britisher a
show! Leave them to it!"

It was evident that a blunder would have unpleasant results, for
Clavering, with switch raised, had tightened his left hand on the bridle
Grant had loosed again, while a wicked smile crept into his eyes, and the
lad stood tense and still, with hands clenched in front of him, and a weal
on his young face. Grant, however, stepped in between them.

"We've had sufficient fooling, Breckenridge," he said. "Clavering, I'll
give you a minute to get your men away, and if you can't do it in that
time you'll take the consequences."

Clavering wheeled his horse. "The odds are with you, Larry," he said. "You
have made a big blunder, but I guess you know your own business best."

He nodded, including the fraeulein, with an easy insolence that yet became
him, touched the horse with his heel, and in another moment he and his
cow-boys were swinging at a gallop across the prairie. Then, as they
dipped behind a rise, those who were left glanced at one another.
Breckenridge was very pale, and one of his hands was bleeding where
Clavering's spur had torn it.

"It seems that we have made a beginning," he said hoarsely. "It's first
blood to them, but this will take a lot of forgetting, and the rest may be
different."

Grant made no answer, but turned and looked at Muller, who stood very
straight and square, with a curious brightness in his eyes.

"Are you going on with the contract? There is the girl to consider," said
Grant.

[Illustration: "COME DOWN!"--Page 47.]

"Ja," said the Teuton. "I was in der Vosges, and der girl is also Fraeulein
Muller."

"Boys," said Grant to the men from Michigan, "you have seen what's in
front of you, and you'll probably have to use more than axes before you're
through. Still, you have the chance of clearing out right now. I only want
willing men behind me."

One of the big axe-men laughed scornfully, and there was a little sardonic
grin in the faces of the rest.

"There's more room for us here than there was in Michigan, and now we've
got our foot down here we're not going back again," he said. "That's about
all there is to it. But when our time comes, the other men aren't going to
find us slacker than the Dutchman."

Grant nodded gravely. "W