"I want the story from the beginning. Jim Black, will you tell what you know?"
Thus simply she accepted her responsibility to the country, took up her final fight for position there.
Black stepped forward, serious, quiet, showing no self consciousness whatever as the eyes swung upon him. Webb's riders had risen and were grouped behind their leader.
"Jimmy told you how I happened here. This steer, ma'am, cut across the flat an' I followed. I heard bawlin' over this way an', naturally, was surprised. Pulled up my hoss an' rode over. There was a fire in that gulch, an' it'd just been scattered. A man had been kneelin' down by it, an' there was one of your yearlin's hog-tied there. Your ear mark was still on him but your brand had been made from an HC into a THO by crossin' the H an' closin' the C."
He stooped and with his quirt demonstrated thusly:
"There was other calves in there. I counted sixteen. They was all THO stuff an' they was all mighty young."
"Did you see any men?" she asked.
He shook his head. "I dragged it for high country, got Jimmy an' told him."
"Oliver, have someone bring out this yearling," Jane said.