"Then I'll sell every animal in my herd, pay off everything I owe and be free of him. You'll have your cattle, and with them and the range cleared of Ludlum's stuff, we'll soon make up the loss and sail ahead; beat Ludlum to a fare-thee-well." "So be it then," Rob acquiesced; "but if we're going to push the herd law we'll have to do it now, before harvesting begins. We'll start with Biane. We may find out from him what made the other fellows back out." But the Portuguese was reticent. On Rob's arguing that the summer grazing was the backbone of the cattle business and that it belonged by rights to the foothill ranchers, Biane shrugged his shoulders and smiled. "Yes. As you say, us fellows have not any show. We ar-re poor and the poor must always stand back; give the fat man the road. Eh?" "Not if we'd hang together the way the big men do," Harry answered promptly. Suddenly she felt a repulsion for that short, swarthy man with his smooth, ingratiating manner, his slow, narrow glance that moved so calculatingly over her and Rob. "Before this," she went on, "we ranchers have struggled on alone, not worrying about our neighbors' troubles; but now we're up against it, and we must work together or go clean broke." "Why, look here, Biane," Rob put in earnestly; "you've a bunch of stock yourself, and you've had to buy hay down on the South Side. What good is Ludlum's good will going to do you? Can't you see that your profit is in standing with us? Every acre of grazing we save is money in your pocket." Biane, chewing a straw, smiled. "I have no ill-feeling for you, Meestore Rob. I like be freendly wit' my neighbors; but so I like keep freendly wit' Ludlum. The range is free. I have no right to drive heem off. Eh?" "But he is driving us off!" Rob exclaimed. "He talks about keeping it free, and he's taking every spear of grass on it. Isn't he?" "I get enough," Biane said gently, with a shrug and a smile. "What more I need? If it is hay that you want, I sell you some." "You? Why, how's that? You'll need all you bought for your own stock, won't you?" "I spare you some. How much you need?" "Well, after we've sold our beef this fall, we'll have about seventy head to winter." "I could let you have feefty ton." "That's fine. At how much?" "Oh, twenty-five dollare. Yes." Rob laughed ironically. "Only twenty-five a ton? How can you let it go so cheap?" "Hay is now feefteen and----" "Sure. And may go to fifteen hundred, so I wouldn't think of robbing you. No doubt you can get fifty from some one you don't want to keep friendly with." "You ar-re mistaken. I rather not to quarrel wit' nobody." "The hill ranchers may not understand," Rob said as he turned his horse. "Trying to keep in with us and our enemy, too, doesn't look so friendly as you imagine."