“The lawless doings on the Brazos have been heard of far beyond the confines of Texas. It was to investigate them that I came here. Chance, luck, what you will, threw me right into the thick of plot and counterplot before I had reached the town of Hackamore. “Do you, Benner, or you, Phelps, want a company of regulars marching down the Brazos? Do you want your ranch buildings burned, your cattle scattered? Do you want to be run to cover and made to answer for your criminal deeds? If you do, make just one more move in this campaign of lawlessness. You seem to have all the legal machinery of this county under your thumbs, but I reckon you understand that fighting the United States Government is a different proposition. “What do you fellows want, peace or war? I am here to give you either. All you have to do is to make a choice. “If you’re for peace, there are conditions. Perry must be left alone. Any further persecution of him will be a signal for that company of regulars. The Star-A cattle that have been rustled and driven off must be returned. Those are the terms for peace. “If you don’t want peace, then I give you my word that you, Benner, and you, Phelps, will see the inside of a federal prison, and that all your wealth won’t keep you out. That’s about all I’ve got to say. Think it over. I and my pards are going to the Star-A ranch with Perry, and Mr. and Mrs. Dunbar and the sky pilot. Try to interfere with us at your own peril.” The scout, with a final look straight into Benner’s eyes, rode away. “Break away, there on the north!” Buffalo Bill cried to the cowboys who fenced in that part of the circle. The cowboys cleared the way in a hurry. “Move on, friends!” cried the scout. “Take your time, there’s nothing to fear.” Perry and the sky pilot, side by side, led the way out of the circle of cattlemen. Behind them rode Mr. and Mrs. Dunbar. Then came the baron and Cayuse, Wild Bill and Nomad, and, at the end of the procession, Buffalo Bill. “Gentlemen,” laughed the scout, “I bid you good day. Go home and do a little reflecting, all of you. You have plenty to think about, I take it.” Benner snarled and showed his teeth like an angry catamount. But the fight had all gone out of Phelps. He was very much depressed. Slowly the scout’s party rode off across the plain in the direction of the Brazos. For a long time the cattle barons and their cowboys kept their horses at a standstill, gazing after the scout. The only man in the vanishing party who loomed ominous in their eyes was Buffalo Bill. That day, if never before, the prince of plainsmen had made his power felt. He, an agent of the government! Sent there to investigate the lawlessness on the Brazos! And neither Benner nor Phelps had ever dreamed of such a thing. They had showed their hands, hiding nothing, daring the scout and defying him. And now they knew that he had been sent there to take the measure of their culpability.