Do you know that we are about to entertain distinguished visitors at the Circle Diamond? Louise McDowell and the governor are going to stay with us a day on their way to Yellowstone Park. I can’t help feeling that it is a good omen. Last year when I went to Cheyenne he would not give me any hope—said he could not possibly do anything for me. But there has been a great change of sentiment here. Tim Flanders talked with the governor not long since, and urged a parole for you. I feel sure the governor would not visit me unless he was at least in doubt. So I’m eager to try again, with Rowan, junior, to plead for me. He’s going to make love to the governor, innocently and shamelessly, in a hundred darling little ways he has. Oh, you don’t know how hard I’m going to try to win the governor this time, dear. CHAPTER XXVIII DISTINGUISHED VISITORS GOVERNOR McDOWELL was a cattleman himself. His sympathies were much engaged in behalf of the Bald Knob raiders. All the evidence at the trial tended to show that Tait had forced the trouble and had refused all compromise. From his talk with the prisoners the governor had learned that the tragedy had flared out unexpectedly. Personally he liked Rowan McCoy very much. But he could not get away from the fact that murder had been done. As a private citizen, McDowell would have worked hard to get his friend a parole; as governor of the State of Wyoming he could not move in the matter without a legitimate excuse. It was his hope of finding such an excuse that led him to diverge from the direct road to Yellowstone for a stop at the Circle Diamond Ranch. On the way he called at the ranches of several old-timers whom he had long known. “It’s like this, Phil,” one of them told the governor. “The Government has stepped in and settled this whole sheep and cattle war. We don’t aim to go night raiding any more—none of us. Sheep are here, and they’re going to stay whether we like it or not. So we got to make the best of it—and we do. What’s the use of keeping Mac and Brad and the other boys locked up for an example when we don’t need one any more? Everybody would be satisfied to see ’em paroled; even the sheepmen would. You couldn’t do a more popular thing than to free the whole passell of ’em.” The governor made no promises, but he kept his ears open to learn the drift of public opinion. Even before he reached Circle Diamond he knew that there would be no strong protest against a parole from the western part of the State.