“I’ll sure keep that leetle ole gas-engine coughin’ regular,” said Sundown.  “I was thinkin’ of somethin’ like that meself.  You see I seen Loring yesterday.  I told him that anybody that was wishful could water stock here so long as she held out—­except there was to be no shootin’ and killin’, and the like.  Ole man Loring says to tell you what I told him and see what you said.  I reckon he’ll take his sheep out of here if you folks’ll take your cattle off the east side.  I ain’t playin’ no favorites.  You been my friend—­you and Bud.  You come and make me a proposition to pump water for you—­and the fifty a month is for the water.  That’s business.  Loring ain’t said nothin’ about buyin’ water from me, so you get it.  You see I was kind of figurin’ somethin’ like this when I first come to this here place—­’way back when I met you that evenin’.  Says I to meself, ’a fella couldn’t even raise robins on this here farm, but from the looks of that water-hole he could raise water, and folks sure got to have water in this country.’  I was thinkin’ of irrigatin’ and raisin’ alfalfa and veg’tables, but fifty a month sounds good to me.  Bein’ a puncher meself, I ain’t got no use for sheep, but I was willin’ to give ole man Loring a chance.  If the mesas is goin’ dry on the east side, what’s he goin’ to do?”

“I don’t know, Sun.  He’s got a card up his sleeve, and you want to stay right on the job.  Bud here got a tip in Antelope that a bunch of Mexicans came in last week from Loring’s old ranch in New Mexico.  Some of ’em are herders and some of ’em are worse.  I reckon he’ll try to push his sheep across and take up around here.  He’ll try it at night.  If he does and you get on to it before we do, just saddle Pill and fan it for the Concho.”

“Gee Gosh!  But that means more fightin’!”

Shoop and Corliss said nothing.  Sundown gazed at them questioningly.

Presently Corliss gestured toward the south.  “They’ll make it interesting for you.  Loring’s an old-timer and he won’t quit.  This thing won’t be settled until something happens—­and I reckon it’s going to happen soon.”

“Well, I’m sure sittin’ on the dynamite,” said Sundown lugubriously.  “I reckoned to settle down and git m—­me farm to goin’ and keep out of trouble.  Now it looks like I was the cat what fell out of a tree into a dog-fight by mistake.  They was nothin’ left of that cat.”

Shoop laughed.  “We’ll see that you come out all right.”

Sundown accepted this meager consolation with a grimace.  Then his face beamed.  “Say!  What’s the matter of me tellin’ the sheriff that there’s like to be doin’s—­and mebby he could come over and kind of scare ’em off.”

“The idea is all right, Sun.  But Jim is a married man.  Most of his deputies are married.  If it comes to a mix some of ’em ’d get it sure.  Now there isn’t a married man on the Concho—­which makes a lot of difference.  Sabe?”