He nodded gravely. "Yes, in this country sheep are death to cows. I hate
to be a quitter, but I hate worse to take the bread out of the mouths of a
dozen families. Two days ago I had an offer for my whole bunch, and
to-morrow I'm going to take the first instalment over the pass and drive
them down to the railroad."
"But you'll have to cross the dead line to get over the pass," she said
quickly; for all Cattleland knew that a guard had been watching his herds
to see they did not cross the pass.
"Yes. I'm going to send Alan with a letter to Farnum. I don't think there
will be any opposition to my crossing it when my object is understood," he
smiled.
Melissy watched him ride away, strong and rugged and ungraceful, from the
head to the heel of him a man. Life had gone hard with him. She wondered
whether that were the reason her heart went out to him so warmly.
As she moved about her work that day and the next little snatches of song
broke from her, bubbling forth like laughter, born of the quiet happiness
within, for which she could give no reason.
After the stage had gone she saddled her pony and rode toward the head of
the pass. In an hour or two now the sheep would be pouring across the
divide, and she wanted to get a photograph of them as they emerged from
the pass. She was following an old cattle trail which ran into the main
path just this side of the pass, and she was close to the junction when
the sound of voices stopped her. Some instinct made her wait and listen.
The speakers were in a dip of the trail just ahead of her, and the voice
of the first she recognized as belonging to the man Boone. The tone of it
was jubilantly cruel.
"No, sir. You don't move a step of the way, not a step, Mr. Alan
McKinstra. I've got him right where I want him, and I don't care if you
talk till the cows come home."
Alan's voice rang out indignantly, "It's murder then--just plain, low-down
murder. If you hold me here and let Morse fall into a death trap without
warning him, you're as responsible as if you shot him yourself."
"All right. Suits me down to the ground. We'll let it go at that. I'm
responsible. If you want the truth flat and plain, I don't mind telling
you that I wouldn't be satisfied if I wasn't responsible. I'm evening up
some little things with Mr. Morse to-day."