"Will they! Four hundred and twenty-two dollars! And the chances are that beef will go down as feed goes up. And you don't reckon on what the other fellow may do. Ludlum is after your land; never-failing water like ours is a gold mine to a stockman. If we put that herd law through, he'll be so mad he'll move heaven and earth to ruin us. He's got a lot of power in this country and he's hard as nails."
"Then I'll sell every animal in my herd, pay off everything I owe and be free of him. You'll have your cattle, and with them and the range cleared of Ludlum's stuff, we'll soon make up the loss and sail ahead; beat Ludlum to a fare-thee-well."
"So be it then," Rob acquiesced; "but if we're going to push the herd law we'll have to do it now, before harvesting begins. We'll start with Biane. We may find out from him what made the other fellows back out."
But the Portuguese was reticent. On Rob's arguing that the summer grazing was the backbone of the cattle business and that it belonged by rights to the foothill ranchers, Biane shrugged his shoulders and smiled.
"Yes. As you say, us fellows have not any show. We ar-re poor and the poor must always stand back; give the fat man the road. Eh?"
"Not if we'd hang together the way the big men do," Harry answered promptly.
Suddenly she felt a repulsion for that short, swarthy man with his smooth, ingratiating manner, his slow, narrow glance that moved so calculatingly over her and Rob.
"Before this," she went on, "we ranchers have struggled on alone, not worrying about our neighbors' troubles; but now we're up against it, and we must work together or go clean broke."
"Why, look here, Biane," Rob put in earnestly; "you've a bunch of stock yourself, and you've had to buy hay down on the South Side. What good is Ludlum's good will going to do you? Can't you see that your profit is in standing with us? Every acre of grazing we save is money in your pocket."
Biane, chewing a straw, smiled. "I have no ill-feeling for you, Meestore Rob. I like be freendly wit' my neighbors; but so I like keep freendly wit' Ludlum. The range is free. I have no right to drive heem off. Eh?"