"War loan!" says he. "It's a loan for his own self that he's looking for. He's lost four million dollars on that irrigation scheme of his when he bought our ranch. Now I'm going to foreclose and he knows it. He's got his funds tied up in cargoes of meat and grain that ain't cashed in. He's short, and damn short! And I know it; and these are times when banks ain't loosening much. War--yes; I'll show him war! There can't nobody get title to a foot of that land till Old Man Wisner gets his title from me--and he ain't never going to get it. If it's my last act I'll ruin him. I trusted you, and you turned me down. I trusted her, and she threw me down. I won't trust nobody no more, except myself. "What's it come to?" says he to hisself after a while, looking around at the big rooms. "What did it all come to, what I done for her? And I give up the ranch for her and give up the life I loved!" "The sun was on the hills when I was out there, Colonel," says I to him, sudden, happening to think of something, "and the sky was blue as it ever was; and the wind was just carrying the smell of the sage, like it used to; and the river was running white on the riffles, same as it did before. And the cows----" "Don't, Curly!" says he. "Don't!" "I won't no more, Colonel," says I. "I won't be on your pay roll much longer; but them old days----" "Don't!" says he. "I can't think about the old days no more. I'm closing the books now, Curly." "So'm I," says I. "What do you mean?" says he. "I ain't right clear about some things." "No; you ain't," says I. "So long as it's fair war I'm in with you; but when it comes to making war on women and children--I ain't in." "Children! Curly, what do you mean?" "Children," says I, "is all there is to things. Buck the game the way you want to, Colonel," says I; "but when you buck the child game you're bucking God Almighty His own self. He's got it framed up so He can't lose. Them two couldn't help theirselfs. I've got to finish some day, same as you. All right; I'll finish with them." Then I shooked hands with him and he done so with me. He looks me keen in the eyes and I looks him keen back. We didn't neither of us weaken. This was a heap the hardest thing we'd ever faced together, but we didn't neither of us flicker. We'd both decided what we thought was right. "Son," says he after a while, "you're some man after all." And he puts his hand on my shoulder; like he used to. "She ain't got no ma," says I to him the last thing. "I'm half her pa, the only half she's got left; and I'll stick if her father don't. But she ain't got no ma. That's what makes me so sorry for the kid," says I. He looks at me, with his eyes wide open, but he don't talk none.