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Upon his return to the house, he went around on the valley side, so as to see the place by light of day His father had built for permanence; and evidently there had been three constructive periods in the history of that long, substantial, picturesque log house But few nails and little sawed lu and skillful hands, axes and a crosscut saw, had been the pri this habitation of the Isbels

"Good mawnin', son," called a cheery voice from the porch "Shore we-all heard you shoot; an' the crack of that forty-four was as welcome as May flowers"

Bill Isbel looked up froirth and inquired pleasantly if Jean ever slept of nights Guy Isbel laughed and there araze he bent on Jean

"You old Indian!" he drawled, slowly "Did you get a bead on anythin'?"

"No I shot to scare ahat I found to be some of your lofers," replied Jean "I heard the wolves I found the dead calf, too Reckon the meat can be saved Dad, you must lose a lot of stock here"

"Wal, son, you shore hit the nail on the haid," replied the rancher "What with lions an' bears an' lofers--an' two-footed lofers of another breed--I've lost five thousand dollars in stock this last year"

"Dad! You don't mean it!" exclaimed Jean, in astonishment To him that sum represented a small fortune

"I shore do," answered his father

Jean shook his head as if he could not understand such an enormous loss where there were keen able-bodied men about "But that's awful, dad How could it happen? Where were your herders an' cowboys? An' Bill an' Guy?"

Bill Isbel shook a vehe manifestly been hit in a sore spot "Where was on brother, as heah, all year, sleepin' more or less aboot three hours out of every twenty-four--ridin' our boots off--an' we couldn't keep down that loss"

"Jean, you-all have a hty tumble comin' to you out heah," said Guy, complacently

"Listen, son," spoke up the rancher "You want to have soure on our troubles There's two or three packs of lofers, an' in winter time they are hell to deal with Lions thick as bees, an' shore bad when the snow's on Bears will kill a co an' then An' whenever an' old silvertip comes mozyin' across from the Mazatzals he kills stock I'ether, an' the whole outfit cain't keep these ver come into the Tonto"