CHAPTER XXI
A LEGAL CONTEST
Holding the flag of truce above his head with both hands, the better toindicate that he was unarmed, the man, a bearded Mexican to allappearances, rode his horse half way across the stream. He was thenwithin easy talking distance of the cowboys and Old Billee called:
"That's far enough, Greaser! Stay right where you are and speak yourlittle piece. Keep him covered, boys," he went on in a low voice tothose around him.
"Oh, he's covered all right," replied Bud. And, indeed, half a dozenguns were trained, more or less conspicuously, on the bearer of theflag of truce.
"Well, say what you've got to say," ordered Billee grimly.
"_Senors_, we have had enough of fight--for the time," came from theherald.
And at the sound of his voice the boy ranchers, with one accord,exclaimed:
"Del Pinzo!"
"At your service, _senors_," came the mocking retort, and Del Pinzo,for he it was, smiled, showing his white teeth through his black,curling beard. It was the beard which had prevented his recognition upto now. Though there was something vaguely familiar about the actionsof the leader of the sheep men. And he who bore the flag of truce--DelPinzo no less--had been the leader in the attempts to cross the creek.
"Well, what do you want?" demanded Billee. "We might have known it wassome of your dirty work, though I must say you've got a pretty goodfalse face on with all them whiskers. What do you want?"
"To cross the creek, of course, _Senor_ Billee, and pasture our sheepon that land which belongs to us."
"Belongs to you! How do you make that out?" demanded Bud, unable tokeep still longer.
"Ah, the young _senor_ speaks," mocked Del Pinzo, smilingly. "Then heshould know that this land has been thrown open to all who may wish tograze sheep on it."
"This land was never intended for sheep, Del Pinzo, and you know it!"cried Billee. "Even if it was, it belongs to Mr. Merkel, though you'llnever see the day he raises sheep--the stinking critters!"
"You say the land belongs to _Senor_ Merkel?" asked Del Pinzo, loweringhis hands and the flag of truce, perhaps unconsciously.
"Keep 'em up!" snarled Snake Purdee, and the flag went up again in atrice.
"You know this land belongs to Mr. Merkel," went on Billee.
"Doubtless, then, he can prove it in a court of law," mocked thehalf-breed Greaser.
"Sure he can!" asserted the old cowboy earnestly and with conviction,though he knew in his heart this was not so. But, as he saidafterward, he wasn't going to let Del Pinzo do all the "bluffing."
"Then we shall go to law about it," said the Mexican leader. "And weshall have action against you for shooting at us when we peaceablytried to cross and pasture our flocks on the open range land that isgiven away by the so grand government of the United States."
"They wouldn't give any to _you_!" cried Billee. "All the land you'llever own in the good old U.S.A. will be six feet to hold you aftersomebody shoots your head off, as ought to be done long ago. You'renot a citizen and you know it, and you can't claim a foot of land, evenif Mr. Merkel didn't own it!"
"I claim it not for myself--but for my friends, the so poor sheepherders," said Del Pinzo, in what he meant for a humble voice. "I butact as their leader and adviser. I seek nothing for myself."
"First time I've ever known _that_ to happen!" chuckled Billee."You're generally looking out for number one first of all. Well, ifyou want to give your friends good advice, tell 'em to go back home andstart making _frijoles_ for a living. They'll never earn their saltraising sheep--that is, not on this side of Spur Creek."
"That is to be seen, _Senor_ Billee," mocked Del Pinzo, still smiling."Once more I demand of you that we are permit to pass the stream andlet our so hungry sheep feed."
"And once more I tell you there's nothin' doin'!" snapped Billee."Your sheep can starve for all of me!"
"For the third time I ask and demand that you let us pass," called DelPinzo, who seemed to have more patience than Billee, whatever elsemight be said in disfavor of the Greaser.
"And for the third and last time I tell you to take your gang and yoursheep back where they came from!" cried Billee. "Now what are yougoing to do--fight?"
"Yes, _senor_," was the calm answer. "I shall fight, but not no longerwith guns. I fight you in the courts. My friends, they are ofcitizens of the United States. They have of a rights to the land andof their rights I shall see that they get. _Adios!_"
He bowed courteously--he was a polite villain, I'll say that forhim--and, lowering the flag of truce, he rode back to join his comradeson the other bank.
For a time there was silence amid the boy ranchers and their friends,and then, as movements among the sheep men indicated that they weregetting ready to depart, Bud asked:
"What do you think is up, Billee?"
"Wa'al, I think, just as Del Pinzo said, he and those with him have hadenough of powder and lead. Now they'll try the courts. I'm afraidyour father is in for a legal battle, Bud."