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Transcriber's note:

      The titles given in the Table of Contents for Chapters VII
      and VIII differ from the chapter titles used in the text.





THE FREE RANGE

by

ELWELL LAWRENCE

Illustrations by Douglas Duer







[Illustration: They rode needlessly close together and swung their
clasped hands like happy children.]



Grosset & Dunlap
Publishers :: New York

Copyright 1913 by
W. J. Watt & Company

Published June




To MATHEW WHITE Jr.,
Editor, author, critic, friend.




CONTENTS

CHAPTER                               PAGE
      I  Flinging The Gauntlet           9
     II  A Late Arrival                 18
    III  An Unsettled Score             31
     IV  The Six Pistol Shots           39
      V  Strategy and a Surprise        50
     VI  Ugly Company                   64
    VII  You Have Forgotten The Mask    74
   VIII  Fiendish Revenge               85
     IX  The Man in The Mask            98
      X  War Without Quarter           114
     XI  Made Prisoner                 124
    XII  Juliet Asserts Herself        136
   XIII  The Heathen Chinee            149
    XIV  Sentenced                     161
     XV  Cowland Topsy-Turvy           176
    XVI  A Message By a Strange Hand   190
   XVII  A Battle in The Dark          203
  XVIII  The Immortal Ten              217
    XIX  An Indian Coulee              235
     XX  Somebody New Turns Up         245
    XXI  Julie Investigates            253
   XXII  The Use of Photography        265
  XXIII  The Crossing                  279
   XXIV  The Story of Lester           289
    XXV  The Threads Meet              301




THE FREE RANGE




CHAPTER I

FLINGING THE GAUNTLET


"Then you insist on ruining me, Mr. Bissell?"

Bud Larkin, his hat pushed back on his head, looked unabashed at the
scowling heavy features of the man opposite in the long, low room, and
awaited a reply.

"I don't want to ruin anybody," puffed old "Beef" Bissell, whose cattle
overran most of the range between the Gray Bull and the Big Horn. "But I
allow as how them sheep of yours had better stay down Nebrasky way where
they come from."

"In other words," snapped Larkin, "I had better give up the idea of
bringing them north altogether. Is that it?"

"Just about."

"Well, now, see here, Mr. Bissell, you forget one or two things. The first
is, that my sheep ranch is