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Theoretically he was supposed to uphold the majesty of the law in Union County, but in reality he merely remained and drew his salary. There was no law to enforce. In the fight that had been waged between the elder Hollis and the Cattlemen's Association his sympathies had been with Hollis, though he had never been able to assist him in a legal way.

His six years of rough life with rough men had brought him to premature manhood, taught him to exhibit a saucy aplomb to everybody, to have at his finger-ends all the knockabout resourcefulness and impudence that the successful vagrant must acquire in order to live at all as an individual.... We were the first on deck. "Where are the cattlemen's bunks?"

"There ain't nobody out here crazy enough to think that the Cattlemen's Association will ever be put out of business!" Hollis's lips curled a little, but his gaze was still steady. "That's evasion, Dunlavey," he said quietly. "You will remember that I asked you what the Circle Bar would bring 'if' the Association ceased to be a factor." Dunlavey favored Hollis with a perplexed grin.

To state calmly that he intended to fight the Cattlemen's Association when there was a life of comparative safety awaiting him in another section of the country was an heroic decision. Many another man would have cringed would have surrendered without striking a blow.

And in the event that a lucky shot should rid the earth of that foul thing, how much would it strengthen his safety, and his neighbors', and fasten their weak hold upon the land? Little, indeed. Others could be hired out of those uncounted millions of the cattlemen's resources to finish what Mark Thorn had begun.

"You haven't told me yet what the trouble was," June said. "Well, this fellow Jas Stuart was a stock detective. He come down for the Cattlemen's Association to find out who was doing the rustlin' in Brown's Park. You see, the Park was a kind of a place where we holed up. There was timbered gulches in there where we could drift cattle in an' hide 'em. Then there was the Hole-in-the-Wall.

"As I have said your father altered his brand a good many times. But the Circle Bar cattle continued to disappear. Years of warfare followed. The Cattlemen's Association lost no opportunity to harass your father or, for that matter, all the other small owners in the vicinity. Desperate, dissolute men were imported from Texas and Arizona, men who took delight in the shedding of human blood.

"Troops have come in here to restore order, and order will be restored." Chadron was gaping in amazement. That feeling in him seemed to smother every other, even his hot rage against King for this sudden shifting of their plans and complete overthrow of the cattlemen's expectations of the troops.

It says that the Circle Bar is worth fifteen thousand. You'll take that or " He smiled grimly, holding back the threat. "I think I know what you mean," said Hollis quietly, without changing color. "You mean that the Cattlemen's Association will continue its fight and eventually ruin the Circle Bar. Perhaps it will no man can tell what lies in the future.

When this administration wants to chalk up a desirable name for early promotion, the Hosannah would like a chance to sudgest. The Demoiselle Irene Dewlap, of South Astolat, is visiting her uncle, the popular host of the Cattlemen's Board- ing Ho&se, Liver Lane, this city. Young Barker the bellows-mender is hoMe again, and looks much improved by his vacation round-up among the out- lying smithies.