Suddenly the quiet reading and attention that Mr. Merkel had been giving his letters was broken as he jumped up, scattering the papers to the floor of the bunk house. He held in his hand a single sheet that seemed to cause him great surprise, not to say anger, and he exclaimed: "Well, it's come, just as I feared it would! Now we're in for some hot times!" "What's the matter, Dad?" asked Bud, looking toward the door in which his cousins now stood, having finished reading their letters. "Not another Indian uprising, is it?" asked Bud. "Almost as bad!" his father answered. "We're going to have trouble. I might have known things were too good to last!" "What sort of trouble?" inquired Nort. "With sheep herders," answered Mr. Merkel. "Sheep herders!" cried Bud, and if you know anything about the cattle business you will realize his tone of voice. For, as I will explain later, sheep herders are hated and despised by cattle men and horse breeders alike, and with good reason, in spite of the rights the sheep men have. "What do you mean?" asked Bud, fully alive to the danger implied by his father's words. "There isn't a sheep within a hundred miles of here, thank goodness!" "No, but there soon will be," said Mr. Merkel grimly. "What makes you say that?" and Bud clearly showed his fear and interest. "Here's an official notice," his father said, waving the paper in his hand. "It just came in the mail yon brought. The government announces that it has thrown open to the public the old Indian lands bordering on Spur Creek, and it won't be a month before the place is over-run with Mexicans, Greasers, and worse, with their stinking sheep! Pah! It makes me sick, after all the work we've done at Diamond X to have it spoiled this way! But I'm not going to sit back and stand it! I'm going to fight!" "That's right, Dad! I'm with you! I'll fight, too! Won't we, fellows?" he appealed to Nort and Dick. "Sure we will!" was their answer. And it was, in a way, as much their battle as it was that of Mr. Merkel and his son. For Bud, Nort and Dick had a small ranch of their own in Happy Valley, not far from the main holdings at Diamond X. "But why do you think we'll be over-run with sheep just because they've opened up the Indian lands?" asked Nort. "It just naturally follows," his uncle answered. "Every low-down onery sheep man for a hundred miles around has had his eyes on these lands for the last five years, waiting for Uncle Sam to put 'em in the open market. Now the government has finally paid the Indians' claims and those fellows at Washington have decided to make it a free-for-all-race." "Well, in that case," said Bud, "can't you and the other cattlemen around here jump in and claim the land so there won't be any danger of the sheep men coming in?"