“Sutherland don’t take no stock in any rustlin’,” he complained. “He’s so gol darned sure nobody’s got the nerve to rustle stock on the Block S range. ’Course I couldn’t blat it all. I only told him what I seen myself, an’ not all that either. He just laughed. Said if some of my cows got shot it wasn’t because somebody was stealin’ their calves, but more likely some poison mean galoot had it in for me.” “How’d he figure calves with no mothers and a T Bar S on their ribs?” Robin inquired. “I didn’t go that far.” Mayne’s normal caution was to the fore, evidently. “I don’t want to start nothin’ I can’t finish. I got to know more before I go hollerin’ names and brands.” “I guess that’s good policy,” Robin agreed. “Still, I don’t _sabe_ the play. If it was Mark-- Why’d he steal calves for a man in Helena?” “Bond’s probably a stall. Mark’s either got an interest in that brand or owns it. Naturally he keeps that dark,” Mayne replied sourly. “If them calves had had a Block S on ’em I’d think my chances were slim to make any money in the cow business around here. I thought at first he was workin’ on me to make a good showin’ for the Block S. I never seen a big cow outfit yet that wouldn’t back a wagon boss in anything he did if he could show a good increase from year to year. But when I see that T Bar S I know he’s out for himself.” “Maybe it ain’t Mark, after all,” Robin murmured. “I’m not dead sure, you know. I went mostly on the flash of silver.” Robin didn’t say that he had been confirmed in his first impression largely by Mark’s behavior since. Mayne looked at him peevishly. “Who’d you think it might be, then?” he inquired. “Or has Mark got you buffaloed so’s you dassent think out loud to me? ’S he been puttin’ the fear uh God into you? You ’fraid of him?” “I don’t know,” Robin answered truthfully. “He’s done some pretty high-handed things in this country and made ’em stick, hasn’t he? He’d be a bad man to tangle with. He’s never made a gun play that I know of. Still, everybody seems to take him for walkin’ dynamite.” “He is, too,” Mayne agreed moodily. “He looks it, acts it once in a while. I sized him up as dangerous the first time I ever saw him. Some men are that way. Soon as you look ’em in the eye, you know they’ll be poison if you go up against ’em. Same time, nobody, if he was deadly as a Gila monster, is goin’ to keep stealin’ my stock and get away with it, make me think I like it. I seen plenty wild west before Mark Steele was born. You watch he don’t keep cuttin’ back unbranded stuff on you when the outfit works south of the mountains, Robin. The time to keep cases on him is all the time. If he drags the long rope on my territory after round-up’s over, I bet you I get him before the grass comes up in the spring.” “Suppose you were dead sure, but had no evidence a stock inspector could make an arrest on, what’ you do?” Robin asked curiously.