It was still early in the morning when Juan Alvarez rode down the pass and invaded the forbidden land. He had the name of a bad _hombre_, this boss herder of Jasper Swope, the kind that cuts notches on his rifle stock. Only one man had ever made Juan eat dirt, and that man now watched him from the high rocks with eyes that followed every move with the unblinking intentness of a mountain lion. "Uhr-r! Laugh, you son of a goat," growled Creede, as the big Mexican pulled up his horse and placed one hand complacently on his hip. "Sure, make yourself at home," he muttered, smiling as his enemy drifted his sheep confidently down into the _redondo_, "you're goin' jest where I want ye. Come sundown and we'll go through you like a house afire. If he beds in the _redondo_ let's shoot 'em into that box canyon, Jim," proposed the big cowman, turning to his partner, "and when they come out the other end all hell wouldn't stop 'em--they'll go forty ways for Sunday." "Suits me," replied Jim, "but say, what's the matter with roundin' up some of them horses and sendin' 'em in ahead? That boss Mexican is goin' to take a shot at some of us fellers if we do the work ourselves." "That's right, Jim," said Creede, squinting shrewdly at the three armed herders. "_I'll_ tell ye, let's send them wild horses through 'em! Holy smoke! jest think of a hundred head of them outlaws comin' down the canyon at sundown and hammerin' through that bunch of sheep! And we don't need to git within gunshot!" "Fine and dandy," commented Jim, "but how're you goin' to hold your horses to it? Them herders will shoot off their guns and turn 'em back." "Well, what's the matter with usin' our tame horses for a hold-up herd and then sendin' the whole bunch through together? They'll strike for the box canyon, you can bank on that, and if Mr. Juan will _only_--" But Mr. Juan was not so accommodating. Instead of holding his sheep in the _redondo_ he drifted them up on the mountain side, where he could overlook the country. "Well, I'll fix you yet," observed Creede, and leaving Jim to watch he scuttled down to his horse and rode madly back to camp.