The next moment his pistol dropped to the ground. A bullet from the Mexican's Winchester had plowed through his right arm. Tuttle, who had not even put hand to his revolver, drew rein beside him while the other men stopped shooting and devoted all their energies to getting away as quickly as possible. Tuttle tore strips from his shirt with which to bind Ellhorn's wound, and persuaded him to return to Las Plumas, where he could have the services of a physician. "I guess I'll have to, Tom," he said regretfully. "I'd like to go after 'em and finish this job up right now. I got one into the big one, but that's nothin' to what they deserve. Lord! but they need to be peppered full of holes! But I can't fight now, and you won't, so it's no use." As they rode back Tuttle said: "You say that Emerson's up to his ears in fight? What's it about? That cattle business?" "Yes, that's it. You know he's been havin' trouble for some time with Colonel Whittaker and the Fillmore Cattle Company, and I reckon hell's a-popping over there by this time. Colonel Whittaker--he's manager of the company now, and one of the stock-holders--wants to corral the whole blamed country for his range. Well, there's Emerson Mead has had his range for the last five years, and Willet still longer, and McAlvin and Brewer, they've been there a long time, too, and they all say they've got more right to the range than the company has, because they own the water holes, and they don't propose to be crowded out by no corporation. But I reckon they'll have to fight for their rights if they get 'em." "How's Whittaker off for men? Got anybody that can shoot?" "You bet he has. Young Will Whittaker is mighty near as good a shot as Emerson is. He does most of the managing at their ranch headquarters, while the old man works politics over in Plumas." "Have they had any fights yet?" "I haven't seen Emerson for a month. He was over in Plumas then and he said he expected to have trouble and wanted me to come out." "You don't mean to say that the Fillmore outfit is really tryin' to drive Emerson and the rest of them out of the Fernandez mountains?" "Well, they want to get control of the whole range for about a hundred miles, if they can. And there's some politics mixed up in it, of course. Old Whittaker is a Republican, you know, with a lot of political schemes he wants to put through. Of course Emerson and the others are Democrats and stand in with the party, and the Colonel thinks he'll be doing the Republicans a big service if he can break them up. Emerson expected the trouble to come to a head over the spring round-up, for Colonel Whittaker said that Emerson and McAlvin and the rest of them shouldn't round-up with him." "Well, Emerson won't stand any such nonsense as that!" "I guess Whittaker and his cow-boys will have to flirt gravel mighty fast if they keep him from it!" CHAPTER III