"I ain't never swallered nothing I ever said."
"All right. I can draw on forty men to fill up gaps, an' I'll do it before I let any range jumper cheat me out of what's mine. When you buck that line, come ready for trouble."
"Yore line'll burn you before you get through pampering it," retorted Meeker, angrily.
"So? We'll pamper anybody that tries to keep us from pampering our line. If there are any burns they'll not be salved in our bunk house. So long."
Meeker laughed, stretched, and slipped his thumbs in the arm-holes of his vest, watching the Bar-20 foreman ride away. Then he frowned and snapped his fingers angrily. "We'll keep you busy on yore 'line' when I get ready to play th' cards I'm looking for!" he exclaimed. "Th' gall of him! Telling me I can't pasture where I wants! By G-d, I'll be told I'm using his sunlight an' breathing his air!"
He stepped forward. "Curley! Chick! Dan!"
A moment later the three men stood before him.
"What is it, Jim?" asked Curley.
"You fellers drive north to-morrow. Pick up th' stragglers an' herd 'em close to that infernal line. Don't drive 'em over till I tell you, but don't let none stray south again; savvy? If they want to stray north it's none of our business."
"Good!"