“Perhaps you had better come and try it,” Mathews returned.
“Thank you. It is the mischievous brutes I would like to shoot, not the good, useful cattle;” so saying, the Spaniard walked away, followed by the scowls of the settlers.
“That is impudence for you,” Gasbang exclaimed.
“Those greasers ain't half crushed yet. We have to tame them like they do their mustangs, or shoot them, as we shoot their cattle,” said Mathews.
“O, no. No such violent means are necessary. All we have to do is to take their lands, and finish their cattle,” said Hughes, sneeringly, looking at Darrell for approval. But he did not get it. Darrell did not care for the Spanish population of California, but he did not approve of shooting cattle in the way which the foregoing conversation indicated. To do this, was useless cruelty and useless waste of valuable property, no matter to whom it might belong. To destroy it was a loss to the State. It was folly.
“Why must cattle be shot? Can't they be kept off, away from your crops without shooting them?” he asked.
“Not always. At first, that is, for the first three years after we located our claims,” Gasbang said; “we had to shoot them all the time. Now the Don has sold a good many, or sent them to the mountains, so that few have been killed.”
“I suppose fencing would be too expensive.”
“Phew! It would be ruinous, impossible,” Mathews said.
“Mr. Mechlin is the only one who has attempted to put up any fences,” Romeo said, who had been listening in silence.