"The cows have been down below on winter pasture," she added. "Adam Selden and the boys rode out yesterday to start the spring drive into the foothills. You'll awake some morning soon to find red cattle all about you, and they'll be here till August."
"Well," he said, "I don't know that I shall mind them. My fence is pretty fair, and with a little more repairing will turn them, I think."
She twirled her rowel in silence for a time, her eyes fixed on it. Then she said:
"It isn't that, Mr. Drew. I may as well tell you right now what I came down here purposely to tell you. You're not wanted here. All of this land has been abandoned so long that Adam Selden and the gang have come to consider it their property—or at least free range."
"But they'll respect my right of ownership."
"I don't know—I don't know. I'm afraid they won't. They're a law unto themselves down in here. They'll try to run you out."
"How?"
"Any way—every way. If nothing else occurs to them, they'll begin a studied system of persecution with the idea of making you so sick of your bargain that you'll pull stakes and hit the trail. That poor man Dodd! Mr. Tamroy told me you happened into the saloon in time to see the shooting. Wasn't it terrible! And how they persecuted him—fairly drove him into the rash act that cost him his life!"
She lifted her glance again. "Mr. Tamroy tells me that you were shocked at me that day."
"I guess I didn't fully understand the circumstances."