Hidden Gold

row opening in the environing hills, and immediately spreading fan-like over the grass of the valley, were sheep; hundreds, thousands of them. Even where he sat, a good quarter mi

hey had not seen in months, the sheep poured through the gap like a torrent of dirty

open silhouette against the sky line, and with many wild gesticulations pointed him out to his companions. With a quick motion, Wade half raised his rifle from the crook of his arm toward his should

ar word of the invasion to Santry, his ranch foreman and closest friend. Thrusting the short-b

s almost upon it. To the left, at the foot of a long slope, the corrals and out-buildings were situated, while beyond them a range of snow-capped mountains rose in majestic grandeur. Back of the house, at the top of the bluff, a broad tableland extended for miles; this, with Crawling Water Valley, comprising the fine

ike an Indian. His countenance in repose was frank and cheerful, and he walked with the free, swinging stride of an out-door man in full enjoyment of bodily health and vigor.

ch experience in camp cookery. The face which the lean and grizzled plainsman turned toward his friend was sea

ou're back early, just in time for me to remark that if we don't get a pot-wrastler for this here outfit

om to remove his spurs and chaps. "There's a C

face downward on the table. Santry was curious to see how long it would be before Wade would set it up again, and he chuckled to himself when he saw that no move was made to do so. Wade had presented Santry to the girl some months before, when th

oduced "makings," and rolled himself a cigarette as he watched

k which nearly capsized the frying pan. "

n the grass that we hoped to save against the winter. It's

fix him, boy. I know his breed, the skunk! I'll...." The veins in the old plainsman's throat stood out and the pupils

ould voice the threat. "Violence may come later on

great horn

y clenched his fingers. He was thinking of the pl

. He knows that we cowmen have controlled this valley for years, and he's no fighter. There's lots of good grass on the other side of the mount

eed, as though the thought were his own. "Answer me

talk with whoever's in charge of the outfit. Maybe I can learn something. You stay here and keep Kelly and the rest quiet if they get wind of what's going on and seem inclined to show

have. But when the time comes and you want a fightin' man, just let me at him! When you want to run some of these here crooks outer the country, you whisper quiet like to old Bill Santry. Until then, I'll wait. That is-" He waved a warning finger at Wade.

further admonitory shake of his grizzle

job for a white man in this weather. Breakin' rock in Hell would be plumb cool alongside of it." He wiped the sweat from his forehead wi

ough and ready, with a heart as big as a bucket, but he wouldn't bend his knee to no man livin'. The English jasper was all kinds of a swell, with money enough to burn a wet dog. For

n he piled up his own plate and started in ter eat. In about ten minutes, in walks the English dude, and when he seen the cook eatin' away, he rares back and says, haughty-like-

aughed pleasantly as Santry began to dish up t

de admonished. "Not a

death struggle. Particularly because of the danger of this, he had insisted upon Santry staying at home. The old plainsman, scarred veteran of many a frontier brawl, was too quick tempered and too proficient with his six-shooter to take back-talk from the despised sheep he

the agent of some Eastern capitalists, and he had opened an office which for sumptuous appointments had never been equaled in that part of the country; but he had not been able to buy or lease land at the prices he offered and his business apparently had not prospered. Then sheep had begun to appear i

ut Wade had not cared to sell. Relying upon his privilege as lessee, Wade had not feared the approach of the sheep, and he had no reason to wish to dispose of his holdings. Now, it began to look as if the purp

f it, or starve. No wonder, then, that the cattlemen of Crawling Water Valley were aroused. Their livelihood was sl

st," had been his advice, and he had done his best to restrain the more hot-headed members of his party, who were for shooting the sheep and driving out the herders at the rifle point. But there

er's camp. Oscar Jensen, a short, thick-set man, with an unwholesome

rni

t feel. "Are these your sheep, Mr. Jensen?" He waved in the direction

es

e Arrow land? I've ridden over to ask you to

or he had been expecting Wade'

enty good grass here and I take my sheep w

right on it. I control this range, I've paid for it, and unless you

sullen face dar

of you cattlemen. My sheep must eat as well as your

ter on the other side of the hills. I advise you to trail your sheep there before it is too late. Don't th

d not conceal his surprise. "You can't bluff me, Wad

ing angry, in spite of his resolve to keep cool. "You'd best listen to reason and pull out while you'r

sly. "I can take care of myself.

it," was Wade's parting remark, a

the Swede shou

s. The sting of Jensen's impudence lay in Wade's realization that to enlist the aid of the sheriff against the sheep man would be very difficult, if not alto

d alkaline sand, gave back a blinding glare like the reflection of a summer sea, from which arose a haze of gray dust

ge of snow-topped mountains cut the horizon with their white peaks, and in their deep and gloomy canyons lurked g

his kind; it came to lie deeply on his shoulders and on his broad-brimmed Stetson hat, and in the wrinkles of the leather chaps that encased his legs. He looked steadily ahead, from u

was walking alone, a little distance from his camp. He f