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"Colter Glad to meet you," replied Jean "An' I reckon who riled oin' to rile me"

"Shore If thet wasn't so you'd not be an Isbel," returned Colter, with a grih "It's easy to see you ain't run into any Tonto Basin fellers yet Wal, I'abbed like a woed aboot you an' how you could fight an' how you could shoot an' how you could track a hoss or a ed how you'd chase every sheep herder back up on the Riht We're goin' to run sheep down in Grass Valley"

"Ahuh! Well, who's we?" queried Jean, curtly

"What-at?We--I in' this Rim froer in Arizona," said Jean, slowly "I know little about ranchers or sheepmen It's true ed, for he was given to bluster an' blow An' he's old now I can't help it if he bragged about ainst you sheepet your hunch Shore we understand each other, an' thet's a powerful help You take my hunch to your old man," replied Colter, as he turned his horse away toward the left "Thet trail leadin' south is yours When you come to the Rim you'll see a bare spot down in the Basin Thet 'll be Grass Valley"

He rode away out of sight into the woods Jean leaned against his horse and pondered It seemed difficult to be just to this Colter, not because of his claims, but because of a subtle hostility that emanated from him Colter had the hard face, the masked intent, the turn of speech that Jean had come to associate with dishonest men Even if Jean had not been prejudiced, if he had known nothing of his father's trouble with these sheepreetings, still Jean would never have had a favorable ionis iven me a man's job"

With that he ht-hand trail Walking and trotting, he traveled all afternoon, toward sunset getting into heavy forest of pine More than one snow bank shohite through the green, sheltered on the north slopes of shady ravines And it was upon entering this zone of richer, deeper forestland that Jean sloughed off his glooiant firs of Oregon, but any lover of the woods could be happy under theher still he climbed until the forest spread before and around him like a level park, with thicketed ravines here and there on each side And presently that deceitful level led to a higher bench upon which the pines towered, and were matched by beautiful trees he took for spruce Heavily barked, with regular spreading branches, these conifers rose in syraceful gray-green moss, waved like veils from the branches The air was not so dry and it was colder, with a scent and touch of snow Jeanthe precaution to unroll his bed so pines he felt co lost the sense of an i away from all around him