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"We'll have rustling as long as we have nesters, Brill," Buck told him

"If that's the case we'll serve notice on the nesters to get out," Healy replied

Buck grinned Indoh he was, he had been unable to roll back the advancing tide of settlement Here and there hoht in small bunches of cattle Most of these were honest men, others suspected rustlers But Buck's fiat had not sufficed to keep them out They had held stoutly to their own and--he suspected--a good deal more than their own Calves had been branded secretly and cows killed or driven away

"Go to it, Brill," Weaver jeered "I' you all the luck in the world"

He touched his pony with the spur and swept up the road in a cloud of white dust

Not till he had disappeared did conversation renew itself languidly, for Seven Mile Ranch was lying under the lethargy of a suht of it," volunteered a brawny youth known as Sliot to do is to take up a clai outfits with easy brands, then keep your iron hot and industrious There's surea nester"

Despite the soft drawl of his voice, he spoke with bitterness, as did the others Every day the feeling was growing stronger that the rustlingto continue to run cattle The thieves had operated with a boldness and a shrewdness that fairly outwitted the ranchers Enough horses and cattle had been driven across the line to stock a respectable ranch Not one of the established ranches had escaped heavy losses; so heavy, indeed, that the owners faced the option of going broke or of exter the rustlers Once or twice the thieves had nearly been caught red-handed, but the leader of the outlaws had saved the y

Healy, until lately foreanized the ranchmen as a protective association In this he had represented Weaver, hih to coöperate with the other ranchmen Once Brill had led the pursuit of the rustlers and had co the cattle being driven across to Sonora were five belonging to hie had been robbed with a gold shipet mine A cattleman had been held up and relieved of two thousand dollars, just taken as part payment for a sale of beef steers The sheriff of Noches County, while trying to arrest a rustler, had been shot dead in his tracks