Hollis met his gaze steadily. "I imagine it is," he said quietly. He could not keep a flash of triumph from his eyes. "Nothing could please me better than to discover that I had a hand in bringing the law to this country. It needs plenty of law."

Judge Graney cleared his throat. "This does not apply to you alone, Dunlavey," he said, facing the latter. "Letters have been sent to every cattleman in Union County, demanding their appearance before me. The government is determined to re-adjust conditions out here--to enforce this new law to the letter. Beginning on the first of next month,--September--which will be the day after to-morrow, every cattle owner in the county will be required to register his brand and return a list of his cattle, for taxation. Any owner refusing to make a fair return on his stock will make a grave mistake. Upon his failure to make such return the government will seize his stock and dispose of it to the highest bidder, deducting such an amount as will cover taxes, court costs, and fines, and returning the remainder, if any, to the owner."

Judge Graney faced Hollis. "I suppose you have received your notification to that effect?" he inquired.

"I haven't paid much attention to my mail since--since I met Mr.

Dunlavey and several of his friends one night--some weeks ago." He smiled grimly at Dunlavey, who met his gaze with a derisive grin. "I haven't been very much interested in anything except getting well,"

continued Hollis. "But whether I have been notified or not I shall take pleasure in complying with the law. I shall have my list ready on time--likewise I shall register my brand."

Dunlavey sneered. "That won't be such an almighty big job--counting your steers," he said.

Hollis laughed shortly. "Perhaps not as big a job as it would have been had conditions been different," he observed dryly.

"Meaning?" snapped Dunlavey, stiffening in his chair.

"You may draw your own inference," drawled Hollis.

For an instant it seemed that Dunlavey contemplated attacking Hollis; he placed both hands on the table before him, preparatory to rising, evidently thought better of the idea and sank into the chair again, his eyes flashing venomously as they met Hollis's.

"This country's going plum to h.e.l.l!" he sneered; "when tenderfeet and half-baked lawyers get to running things it will be time for the cattlemen to pull up stakes and hit the breeze! But I'm telling you one thing!" He banged his fist heavily down upon the table in front of him and scowled at the Judge, his voice vibrating with pa.s.sion: "You let your d.a.m.ned tenderfoot owners bring in their lists. Mebbe they don't know any better. But I ain't bringin' in no list. It's one thing to pa.s.s a law and another thing to enforce it!" He sat silent for an instant, glaring at the Judge, who smiled quietly at him, then he turned to Hollis.

"You've been carrying on like you was intending to own this here country some day," he sneered; "with your d.a.m.ned newspaper and your lawyer friend here. What we handed you the other night was just a sample of what you'll get if you don't hit the breeze out of this country!" He got to his feet and stood beside the table, glaring around at the three men.

For a moment neither of the three spoke. There was a saturnine, almost mocking, smile on the face of the man who stood at the window. In his expression one could discover much appreciation of the character of the man at whom he was looking--it revealed the fact that he had met such men before--and admired them little. There was no fear in the expression, yet had one of the other men taken the trouble to look at him they would have seen that his right hand was now lingering very close to the b.u.t.t of the revolver at his hip.

Judge Graney cleared his throat. The smile was still on his face, but a sudden brightness of the eyes and a flush in each cheek showed that Dunlavey's defiance had affected him. Both he and the man at the window watched closely as Hollis got to his feet and approached Dunlavey.

Hollis's face was slightly pale, but there was a steady, unwavering gleam in his eyes as he walked to within five feet of Dunlavey and stood quietly beside the table looking at him.

"Dunlavey," he began slowly, in a soft, even voice, in which there was not a hint of excitement, "I haven't anything to do with enforcing the law that seems to have come to Union County. You can defy the law if you please. But I have something to say in reply to what you have said to me. It is this: I haven't any ambition to own the entire country--such talk from a grown man is childish. But I do intend to own the little I've got in spite of you or anyone else. I am not in the least afraid of you. I owe you something on account of the other night and some day I am going to thrash you within an inch of your life!"

Dunlavey's hand fell suggestively to his side. "There's no time like the present," he sneered.

"Of course I know that you carry a gun," said Hollis still evenly, without excitement; "most of you folks out here don't seem to be able to get along without one--it seems to be the fashion. Also, I might add, every man that carries one seems to yearn to use it. But it has always seemed to me that a man who will use a gun without great provocation is a coward!" He smiled grimly into Dunlavey's face.

For an instant Dunlavey did not move. His eyes glittered malevolently as they bored into Hollis's. Then his expression changed until it was a mingling of contempt, incredulity, and mockery.

"So you're thinking of thrashing me?" he sniffed, backing away a little and eyeing Hollis critically. "You slugged me once and you're thinking to do it again. And you think that any man who uses a gun on another is a coward?" He laughed sardonically. "Well, all I've got to say to you is that you ain't got your eye-teeth cut yet." He deliberately turned his back on Hollis and the others and walked to the door. On the threshold he halted, looking back at them all with a sneering smile.

"You know where I live," he said to Judge Graney. "I ain't bringing in no list nor I ain't registering my brand. I don't allow no man to come monkeying around on my range and if you come out there, thinking to run off any of my stock, you're doing it at your own risk!" His gaze went from the Judge to Hollis and his smile grew malignant.

"I'm saying this to you," he said, "no man ain't ever thrashed Bill Dunlavey yet and I ain't allowing that any man is ever going to. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!"

He slammed the door and was gone. Hollis turned from the door to see a dry smile on the face of the man at the window.

"Fire eater, ain't he?" observed the latter, as he caught Hollis's glance.

CHAPTER XVI

THE BEARER OF GOOD NEWS

Hollis smiled. The Judge got to his feet and approached the two men.

"Hollis," he said, "shake hands with Mr. Allen, of Lazette."

Allen's hand came out quickly and was grasped by Hollis's, both grips being hearty and warm.

"My name's Ben Allen," explained the stranger with a smile. "Tacking on a handle like 'Mister' would sure make me feel like a stranger to myself."

"We'll not quarrel about that," remarked the Judge with a smile; "we'll call you Ben." He looked soberly at Hollis, continuing:

"Allen has been sent over here from Lazette to a.s.sist us in establishing the law. He was formerly sheriff of Colfax County, having been defeated by the Cattlemen's a.s.sociation because he refused to become a party to its schemes. On several occasions since severing his official connection with Colfax County he has acted in a special capacity for the government. He is an old acquaintance of the new Secretary of the Interior and much trusted by him. He is to be the inquisitor mentioned in the letter which I read in the presence of Dunlavey."

Hollis looked at Allen with a new interest. After noting again the steady, serene eyes, narrowed always with a slight squint; the firm straight lips, the well set jaws, Hollis mentally decided that the Secretary of the Interior could not have made a better choice.

Certainly, if he had served as sheriff of Colfax County, he had had some excellent experiences, for from reading the _Lazette Eagle_, Hollis had acquired considerable knowledge of the character of the inhabitants of Colfax. The editor of the _Eagle_ had many times felicitated himself upon the fact that his town (Lazette) had not been built ten miles farther east--in which case he would have been a resident of Union--and ashamed of it.

"I think we need you," said Hollis simply. "But I imagine you will have to concentrate your efforts upon one ranch only--the Circle Cross. If you make Dunlavey bow to the law you may consider your work finished."

"I think Dunlavey will change his views of things shortly," remarked Allen, quietly, but significantly. He smiled at Hollis. "I have read your paper regularly," he said. "You've got the editor of our paper hopping mad--with your claims about Dry Bottom being superior to Lazette. Also, you've stirred up the Secretary of the Interior some. I was called to Washington three weeks ago and invited to tell what I knew of conditions out here. I didn't exaggerate when I told the Secretary that h.e.l.l was a more peaceful place for a law loving man to live in.

Though," he added with a smile, "I wasn't ever in h.e.l.l and couldn't be positive. I was just accepting what I've heard preachers say about it.

The Secretary asked me if I knowed you and I told him that though I didn't I would be right glad to if you was doing anything in my line. He laughed and said he'd miss his guess if you wasn't making things interesting. Told me to get you to one side and tell you to go to it."

He smiled dryly. "According to what I've read in the _Kicker_ you don't need to be told that and so I'm keeping my mouth shut."

He dropped his humor and spoke seriously, questioning Hollis about the location of his ranch, listening quietly and attentively to the latter's answers. Half an hour later after having arranged with Judge Graney for the registering of his brand and the listing of his cattle, Hollis left the court house and went to his office. In running through his mail he came upon Judge Graney's notification and also another letter, postmarked "Chicago," which drew a pleased smile to his face. A few minutes later Norton came in, and though Hollis had done very little on the paper he rose and smilingly announced his intention of returning to the Circle Bar.

"We'll take the Coyote trail," he informed Norton, after they had mounted and were riding away from the _Kicker_ office; "I'm stopping for a moment at the Hazelton cabin. Of course," he added, seeing a knowing grin on Norton's face, "I expected you would be suspicious--married folks have a habit of adopting a supercilious and all-wise att.i.tude toward those of us who have been unfortunate enough to remain in a state of single blessedness."

"Meanin' that you're some sore because you ain't got hooked up yet?"

grinned Norton.

"Perhaps," laughed Hollis. "But I have been thinking seriously of trying to reach your alt.i.tude."

"Girl willin'?" queried Norton, as they rode down through a little gully, then up to a stretch of plain that brought them to the Coyote trail.

"That's where I am all at sea," returned Hollis. He laughed. "I suppose you've read Ace's poem in the Kicker?" He caught Norton's nod and continued. "Well, Ace succeeded in crowding a whole lot of truth into that effort. Of course you remember the first couplet:

"'Woman--she don't need no tooter, Be she skule ma'am or biscut shooter."'

he quoted.

"A woman seems to have an intuitive knowledge of man's mental processes.

At least she gauges him pretty well without letting him into the mystery of how she does it. A man can never tell where he will land." Ace came very near striking the nail on the head when he wrote in the second couplet that:

'She has most curyus ways about her, Which leads a man to kinda dout her.'