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Updated: May 16, 2025
"Oh, hell!" exclaimed the big cowboy, rising up suddenly from his place, "don't talk Government to me, whatever you do! W'y, Judge," he cried, throwing out his hands, "they ain't no Government here. They ain't no law. I could go over and kill one of them sheep-herders and you wouldn't see an officer in two days.
According to old Dumble, his objective would be Bakersfield, and to reach Bakersfield some dry plains must be traversed. At the watering-places upon these plains we might expect to hear from sheep-herders and vaqueros some information respecting animals so handsome and so peculiarly marked as our colts. And so it proved.
Wonderingly he watched the keen lined face. More than material worries were at the root of brooding, mounting thoughts in his father's eyes. "Now next take what Jim said aboot your comin' to chase these sheep-herders out of the valley.... Jean, I started that talk. I had my tricky reasons. I know these greaser sheep-herders an' I know the respect Texans have for a gunman. Some say I bragged.
Indeed, the mere reading about football matches and the like created an unquenchable thirst in cowboys and sheep-herders. Moreover the 'Bishop' enforced order and decorum, being a muscular Christian, and the boys learned to curb obscene tongues in his presence. Dick marvelled at the change in his partner, but he was shrewd enough to see that it brought grist to the gin-mill.
But the village always had transient inhabitants friendly Utes and Navajos in to trade, and sheep-herders with a scraggy, woolly flock, and travelers of the strange religious sect identified with Utah going on into the wilderness. Then there were always riders passing to and fro, and sometimes unknown ones regarded with caution.
Then she told Bo how complicated and bewildering was the management of a big ranch when the owner was ill, testy, defective in memory, and hard as steel when he had hoards of gold and notes, but could not or would not remember his obligations when the neighbor ranchers had just claims when cowboys and sheep-herders were discontented, and wrangled among themselves when great herds of cattle and flocks of sheep had to be fed in winter when supplies had to be continually freighted across a muddy desert and lastly, when an enemy rancher was slowly winning away the best hands with the end in view of deliberately taking over the property when the owner died.
His aggressive presence suggested that he was a good friend and a bad enemy. Dale shook hands with him. "How are you, Beasley?" "Ain't complainin', Milt, though I got more work than I can rustle. Reckon you wouldn't take a job bossin' my sheep-herders?" "Reckon I wouldn't," replied Dale. "Thanks all the same." "What's goin' on up in the woods?" "Plenty of turkey an' deer. Lots of bear, too.
"Who done it?" asked Ike, grimly. The cow-puncher shook his head. "None of us," he said, soberly. "We ain't any too lovin' with sheep-herders, but we ain't aimin' to butcher 'em with soft-nose slugs from behind a rock, neither. We picks him up a mile or two out of Shoestring and his hoss is just driftin' along no'th with him while he's slumped up on the seat. There ain't no sheep with him."
This was the logical path that the sheep-herders followed in crossing the range and, indeed, the only feasible one for many miles in either direction, though there was a fair wagon road that ran eastward and flanked that end of the range, leading to Maryville on the other side of the mountains, where the county seat was located.
"If I had my way, I'd give my rangers the power of the Canadian mounted police. Is there any other State in this nation where the roping of sheep-herders and the wholesale butchery of sheep would be permitted?
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