"There's going to be the biggest loss this range has ever known." "It's the owners' fault," snapped Thurston, whose nerves were in that irritable state which calls loudly for a vent of some sort.

Even argument with Gene, fruitless though it perforce must be, would be a relief.

"It's their own fault.

I don't pity them any--why don't they take care of their stock?
If I owned cattle, do you think I'd sit in the house and watch them starve through the winter ?" "What if yuh owned more than yuh could feed?
It'd be a case uh have-to then.

There's fifty thousand Lazy Eight cattle walking the range somewhere today.