"I hope we've seen the last of that bunch," remarked Dick, tenderly feeling of his wounded hand.
"No such good luck," declared Nort. "Do you really think they mean to try and get pasturage here, Billee?" he asked.
"I sure do," replied the veteran. "They can't feed their sheep much longer on the other side of the creek—they'll have to come here—if they can."
"But we stopped 'em," said Snake.
"Only for a time," said Billee. "As Del Pinzo boasts, now they'll try the courts."
"But that Greaser won't have a standing in any decent court," exclaimed Bud. "He's a jail bird—he isn't even a citizen!"
"How does it come he is working for the interests of these Greasers, some of whom may be citizens?" asked Nort.
"Del Pinzo will do anything by which he can get a dollar or have a little power," was Billee's opinion. "How he got out of jail I don't know. Maybe it's by some power over a government official, and maybe he hopes, by that same hold, to influence the courts against us. Anyhow, he's out of jail and he's cast his lot in with the sheep men for his own advantage, you can gamble on that—not theirs. He has stirred them up to demand certain things which they regard as their rights under the new law.
"Well, maybe they are their rights, on land that hasn't already been claimed, but that doesn't apply here. Your dad owns this land, Bud, and we're going to see he doesn't lose it by any tricks of Del Pinzo."
"He seems to have given up his tricks for a time," remarked Bud.