“Somethin’ about forgivin’ those who trespass against us.”
“All damned rot! Those people turned you down like a white chip in a no-limit game. They’d run you out of that valley, if you went back, and you know it. Don’t be a fool, Nolan. You acted like a human being, and they turned against you. Never in all my life did I see people so narrow. Suppose you and Ben Kelton did quarrel over Della, that dance-hall girl? Why⸺”
“That’s about all of that subject, Marsh.”
“I beg your pardon, Nolan.”
“I just don’t care to hear about it. God knows, I had plenty of it at that trial. That part hurt worse than any other.”
“I know.” Marsh leaned forward on the desk. “Nolan, I’ll tell you why I got you out, why I had you come here. In the last six months I’ve bought the Medicine Tree Bank, and bought the Triangle X ranch. I tried to buy out the JK and the rest of the damned valley, but they wouldn’t sell.”
“You goin’ into the cow business, Marsh?”
“You know I’m not. I’m going in the sheep business on a bigger scale. I’m the biggest raiser in the West.”
Blaze Nolan took a deep breath, his eyes narrowing. “Marsh, are you thinkin’ of puttin’ sheep in Painted Valley?”
“You hit it square in the eye, Nolan. Every ranch in that valley is mortgaged with that bank; and I own the bank. I can wait. Old Jim Kelton’s mortgage is due this month, and I’ll not renew it. He’s got enough stock in the hills to pay off that mortgage, but it will leave him broke. I want that ranch.”