"Lane came in with a hard-looking band of rascals by the Pacific Mail last night," he said. "They had got whisky somewhere, and smashed the hotel windows because Imrie wouldn't get them supper in the middle of the night. He would start as soon as they were partly sober. Are you prepared to protect your property, Ormesby?"
"I am ready to protect other people's, which will suit me a good deal better in this instance," I said, with a certain satisfaction that the time for open resistance had come at last, though Lane had cunningly chosen a season when every man's presence was necessary at his own homestead.
"Don't count too much on that," said Boone. "If you have no documentary evidence, even the actual owners might have difficulty in substantiating your claim. Now you see why I demanded a written agreement. It strikes me that in this case possession is everything."
"If I can keep whole in body until sundown, possession will remain with us," I said. "But there is no time to spare for talking. It will take hours to bring my neighbors up."
"Of course you arranged with Haldane to send you assistance?" said Boone; and hurled out an expletive when I answered stolidly: "That is just what I did not do. I do not even know whether he is at home. It is not necessary to drag all one's friends into a private quarrel."
"Goodness knows why you are so unwarrantably proud, and it is not worth while wasting time over that question now," said Boone. "Roll up your thick-headed stockmen. I'm going on to Bonaventure for the one man whose presence would be worth a hundred of them."
He lashed his horses as he spoke, and I roused myself to action, while long before his wagon dipped over the rim of the prairie Thorn had set out at a gallop to bring our neighbors in. A neighbor may dwell from one to ten leagues away in that country. This left only Steel and me to hold Crane Valley, with the exception of Sally. The girl absolutely refused to leave us, and it may not have been by accident that several heavy-handled brushes lay convenient beside the stove. The stock were driven off as far as we dare follow them across the prairie, and we hoped they would remain unseen in a hollow; the working horses were made fast in the stable; and when a few head of pedigree cattle had been secured in the corral, we could only sit down and wait the siege.
I spent several hours perched most uncomfortably on the roof with a pair of glasses; but though the day was clear, nothing appeared above the rim of the prairie. It spread all around the horizon in low rolling rises, empty and desolate. My eyes grew dazzled, the continued use of the glasses produced a distressful headache; but still nothing moved on either rise or level, and it was a relief when at last Sally hailed me: "Come down and get your dinner; scenery won't feed anybody."
I had forgotten there was such a thing as food, and my throat and lips were dry; but on descending I was surprised to find myself capable of making an excellent meal.
"You'll feel considerably better after that," said Sally, who watched our efforts with much approval. "I guess you have forgotten you had no breakfast, either of you."