cover his first expenses would yield him nothing.

"Yes," he returned moodily. "It looks as if it couldn't rain. We
ought to go in more for stock-raising; it's safer."

"Costs quite a pile to start with, and the ranchers farther west
certainly have their troubles. We had a good many calves missing, and
now and then prime steers driven off, when I was range-riding."

"I haven't heard of any cattle-stealing about here."

"No," said the teamster. "Still, I guess we may come to it; there are
more toughs about the settlement than there used to be. Indians have
been pretty good, but I've known them make lots of trouble in other
districts by killing beasts for meat and picking up stray horses. But
that was where they had mean whites willing to trade with them."

George considered this. It had struck him that the morality of the
country had not improved since he had last visited it; though this was
not surprising in view of the swarm of immigrants that were pouring in.
Grant had pithily said that once upon a time the boys had come there to
work; but it now looked as if a certain proportion had arrived on the
prairie because nobody could tolerate them at home. Flett and the
Methodist preacher seemed convinced that there were a number of these
undesirables hanging about Sage Butte, ready for mischief.

"Well," he said, "I suppose the first thing to be done is to stop this
liquor-running."

They had no further conversation for another hour. The poplars rustled