CHAPTER NINE.
THE EVIL EYE OF THE SAWTOOTH Oppression is a growth that flourishes best in the soil of opportunity.
It seldom springs into full power at once.

The Sawtooth Cattle Company had begun much as its neighbors had begun: with a tract of land, cattle, and the ambition for prospering.

Senator Warfield had then been plain Bill Warfield, manager of the outfit, who rode with his men and saw how his herds increased,--saw too how they might increase faster under certain conditions.

At the outset he was not, perhaps, more unscrupulous than some of his neighbors.

True, if a homesteader left his claim for a longer time than the law allowed him, Bill Warfield would choose one of his own men to file a contest on that claim.