"I feel it my duty to warn you that if you have any business dealings with him to look well to your own interests. He will take every legal advantage, and some that, in my opinion, are not legal." "You surprise me!" exclaimed Mr. Bellmore. "I did not know that he was that kind of man." "Well, he is," put in Dave. "You mustn't think we cowpunchers are in the habit of giving our neighbors black eyes, Mr. Bellmore," went on the young cowboy, "but it is for your own interests that my father is speaking." Dave did not hesitate at the word of relationship now. Mr. Bellmore did not know the secret. "Oh, I think I understand," the water-man said. "I'm sorry I began negotiations with Molick, but I don't very well see how I can get out of them. I need his water rights." "Perhaps he hasn't as many rights as you think he has," suggested Mr. Carson. "What do you mean?" "I mean there's a dispute about the river boundary lines. I claim more water than I'm getting, but I'm not in a position to enforce my claims just at present. That is why I wanted to know about the fences. It may be that Molick is encroaching." "I'd be sorry to hear that," Mr. Bellmore said. "When I told him to go ahead and fence in certain open tracts, so we would know just where the water boundaries extended, I had no idea I would cause you trouble, Mr. Carson." "You haven't--yet," was the dry answer. "And I don't intend to!" went on the Chicago man. "Oh, if there's any trouble, I'll not lay it at your door," went on the ranch owner, smiling grimly. "It will be Molick who causes it, if anybody does. But I want, for your own good, to warn you against this man. He has done a lot of mean things in this section, and he is capable of doing more. He's as mean as they make 'em, and I truly hate to say that about a neighbor." "Oh, I accept it in confidence," replied Mr. Bellmore. "I know you do, and that's why I didn't hesitate. I thought it my duty," resumed the owner of Bar U ranch. "I've come to like you a heap since Dave brought you here. Seems almost as though you were kin to us. That's why I'd hate to see you wronged. And you surely will be outwitted if you don't watch Molick. He'd take the eye teeth out of a stuffed alligator if he wasn't watched, and sell 'em for watch charms. Dave knows him!" "Oh, yes. He's made a lot of trouble for us," Dave assented. "Well, I don't know exactly what to do," said Mr. Bellmore, slowly. "I have asked Molick to go ahead, and have practically promised to do business with him. I can hardly back out now. If I did he might begin suit against my company, claiming a breach of contract." "He'd do that if he had half a chance," answered Mr. Carson. "But perhaps matters are not so bad as they seem. He's just begun to build the fences, so Pocus Pete says. It may not be too late to stop him. We'll take a run out that way to-morrow and see what's going on. Meanwhile, consider yourself warned against Jason Molick, Mr. Bellmore."