The Settling of the Sage

A rider jogged northward along the road on a big pinto horse, a led buckskin, packed, trailing a half-length behind. The horseman traveled with the regulation outfit of the roam...

Evans regarded Harris curiously as he deliberately provoked the argument, then sat back and listened to the various ideas of the others as the discussion became heated and gener...

"I know, Billie," he said softly. "I was raised here, up until I was eight. My feeling is likely less acute than yours but I've always hankered to get back to where the sage and...

"He's on the fight now," Evans said. "I'll hold him solid till he cools down--which won't be long, for Cal didn't cut him any; he was swinging his feet free and never hooked him...

She realized the soundness of this statement. The one unalterable code of the country, a code that had been fostered till it eclipsed all others, decreed that a man should be lo...

"And it would be the word of a self-confessed thief against that of the biggest owner within two hundred miles, and Slade would laugh at him--or kill him, according to whatever...

"I've a pretty elastic conscience myself," the voice went on. "I'm not above lifting a few calves for the brand I'm riding for or any little thing like that, but this deal sort...

"We've a clear field now with nothing on our minds but the job of putting the Three Bar on its feet," he said. "The Three Bar is a pretty small outfit the way things are to-day...

"In one country after the next they've hit the toboggan whenever they got to feeling too strong. If you line up against me that time has come again. If I get potted from the bru...

"It's like this:" Harris explained. "We'd have to make a specific charge against a few men--name them in connection with some raid. That nest down there is only a sort of stoppi...

"Evans didn't exactly mean quite all of that," Harris explained. "Of course if Morrow does come up our way Lanky would prefer to see him first--but he would rather he'd keep awa...

He returned to the girl as the stock train pulled out. Two hands waved a joyous farewell from the top of the cars, delighted at the prospect of a trip to market with the steers.

The heaviest cedar posts were tamped in place for the outer fence and a six-wire barrier held range cows back from the bottoms which would soon be in growing crops. It crossed t...

"He's a U. S. plant," Harris corrected. "But he's been working in with us to get something on Slade--to gather proof that he's behind these squatter raids of the last few years...

"Slade's through!" he asserted again. "He's locked up and when he gets out his hands will be tied. Inside of a month the law will be in the saddle for the first time in years. P...

She sat in the Colton library waiting for Deane to come and take her to a lakeside clubhouse for the evening. Tiny leaves showed on the trees and the lawn was a smooth velvet gr...