“I was watchin’ them birds,” Boy answered. “You saw what the big greedy chap did to the thrush—he drove him away; and it made me think of what Hallibut and his agents are tryin’ to do with us Bushwhackers.”
“They can’t do it,” cried Paisley. “Just let ’em try it on.”
“Hallibut threatens that he’ll own all this part of the country. He’s too much of a coward to come over and try to get it himself, but he’s tryin’ to get it through others, as you know.”
“Watson?” questioned Paisley.
Boy nodded.
“Watson’s likely comin’ over to-day. Dad got a letter from him.”
Paisley crammed his hands in his pockets and shrugged his shoulders.
“I scented trouble when the Colonel built that mill over on Totherside,” he declared, “but there was no way of stoppin’ him. It was his own land he built on; it’s his own timber he’s been sawin’. I understand he’s layin’ plans to get our timberland, and there ain’t no tellin’ just what a man like him will do to gain his ends. But, Boy, we’re here first—don’t you forget that.”
“I’m not forgettin’ it,” returned Boy grimly.
“Say,” said Bill, abruptly changing the conversation, “when is Gloss’s birthday?”