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Updated: June 11, 2025
At the outset he was not, perhaps, more unscrupulous than some of his neighbors. True, if a homesteader left his claim for a longer time than the law allowed him, Bill Warfield would choose one of his own men to file a contest on that claim. The man's wages would be paid. Frequently a Sawtooth man would file upon land before any other man had claimed it.
About noon Swan approached the crowd of men and a few women who stood at a little distance and whispered together, with their faces averted from the body around which the men stood grouped. The news had spread as such news will, even in a country so sparsely settled as the Sawtooth. Swan counted forty men, he did not bother with the women. Fred Thurman had been known to every one of them.
"Well I dunno as anything would be liable to happen," he said uncomfortably. "'Tain't likely him 'n' Brit'd both have accidents not right hand-runnin'." "Accidents?" Lorraine felt her throat squeeze together. "Sorry, you don't mean Sawtooth accidents?" she blurted. She surprised a grunt out of Sorry, who looked over his shoulder as if he feared eavesdroppers.
Inevitably it became necessary now and then to stop a mouth that was ready to speak unwelcome truths. But if a Sawtooth man were known to have committed violence, the Sawtooth itself was the first to put the sheriff on his trail. If the man successfully dodged the sheriff and made his way to parts unknown, the Sawtooth could shrug its shoulders and wash its hands of him.
"D'yuh think me and Frank could fight the Sawtooth and get anything out of it but a coffin apiece, maybe?" he demanded harshly. "Don't the Sawtooth own this country? Warfield's got the sheriff in his pocket, and the cor'ner, and the judge, and the stock inspector he's Senator Warfield, and what he wants he gets. He gets through the law that you was talking about a little while ago.
There had been too many killings already, he asserted in his naïve way; the sooner Al Woodruff was locked up, the safer the country would be. He discussed with Lone the possibility of making Al talk, the chance of his implicating the Sawtooth. Lone did not hope for much and said so. "If Al was a talker he wouldn't be holding the job he's got," Lone argued. "Don't get the wrong idea again, Swan.
A sheepman was struck by lightning, according to the coroner, and his widow had been glad to sell ranch and sheep very cheaply to the Sawtooth and return to her relatives in Montana. The Sawtooth had shipped the sheep within a month and turned the ranch into another line-camp.
Lone wondered sometimes what the Sawtooth meant to do about the Swede, but so far the Sawtooth seemed inclined to do nothing at all, evidently thinking his war on animal pests more than atoned for his effrontery in taking Skyline as a homestead. When he had proven up on his claim they would probably buy him out and have the water still. "Well, what do you know?"
Warfield did not suggest separating, though Lone expected him to do so, since one man on a trail was as good as three in a search of this kind. He was still inclined to doubt the whole story. He did not believe that Lorraine had been to the Sawtooth, or that she had raved about anything.
They would not be openly assailed, Bill Warfield was an intelligent man. A dozen brands were recorded in the name of the Sawtooth Cattle Company, and if a small rancher found his calf crop shorter than it should be, he might think as he pleased, but he would have no tangible proof that his calves wore a Sawtooth brand.
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