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"Hash Knife Gang? What a pretty name!" replied Jean "Who're they?"

"Rustlers, son An' shore the real old Texas brand The old Lone Star State got too hot for them, an' they followed the trail of a lot of other Texans who needed a healthier climate Some two hundred Texans around heah, Jean, an' maybe a ood an' bad Reckon it's aboot half an' half"

A cheery call from the kitchen interrupted the conversation of thethe meal the old rancher talked to Bill and Guy about the day's order of work; and fro cattle business his father conducted After breakfast Jean's brothers manifested keen interest in the new rifles These were unwrapped and cleaned and taken out for testing The three rifles were forty-four calibre Winchesters, the kind of gun Jean had found most effective He tried them out first, and the shots heto the others Bill had used an old Henry rifle Guy did not favor any particular rifle The rancher pinned his faith to the faun "Wal, reckon I'd better stick tonew tricks But you boys may do ith the forty-fours Pack 'em on your saddles an' practice when you see a coyote"

Jean found it difficult to convince hiuns and marksmanship had any sinister propulsion back of it His father and brothers had always been this way Rifles were as important to pioneers as plows, and their skillful use was an achievement every frontiers the ood shot But such proficiency in the use of firearms--and life in the open that was correlative with it--had not dominated them as it had Jean Bill and Guy Isbel were born cattlean to hope that his father's letter was an exaggeration, and particularly that the fatalistic speech of last night, "they are goin' to kill me," was just a moody inclination to see the worst side Still, even as Jean tried to persuade himself of this more hopeful view, he recalled un-throwing, for feuds, for never-ending hatreds In Oregon the Isbels had lived a industrious and peaceful pioneers froh and prih no Isbel had ever killed a man But now they had beco men of their own breed Jean was afraid his hopes had only sentie, brooding, hter side Whatever the evil conditions existing in Grass Valley, they could be e, with an absolute certainty that it was inevitable they must pass away Jean refused to consider the old, fatal law that at certain wild times and wild places in the West certain e evil conditions