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what I mean,” Tonia cried. “It seems so obvious-Damson going into politics and buying up the Cattlemen’s Bar and the mortgages on a lot of property from the Helena bank. And nobody seems concerned. They just say it’s good business on Damson’s part.”
    She waved a hand around her. “If there’s a drought or cattle prices drop, he’ll own half this end of the valley. Most of the little ranchers on the west side won’t be their own bosses anymore. They’ll work for Bick Damson.”
    “You’ve been listening to Tom Roddy,” Clay said.
    “What of it?” she demanded. “Tom can see what’s going on, and he’s not afraid to speak up.”
    “I don’t like it any better than you and Tom do,” Clay told her. “But what’s that got to do with my not going into the mountains?”
    “Don’t you see?” she cried. “Damson can’t afford to have you around — not after the threats he’s made. And Vanner can’t afford it either. Because if you did manage to make a success of your ranch, then you and dad together would be bigger than Damson could ever hope to be.”
    Clay gave her a puzzled look. “You’re afraid of Damson’s power but you don’t want me to try to fight him. What kind of sense does that make?”
    Tonia flushed. “I’ve waited for you for five years,” she whispered. “People laughed at me and told me you’d never come back. But I knew you would, and I kept on waiting.” She turned her eyes away from him. “I could stand waiting again — if I knew you would come back. But I couldn’t stand it if there was — wasn’t anyone to wait for.”
    “What do you want me to do?” he asked. “Turn tail and run? Leave the valley to Damson and Vanner?”
    “You wouldn’t do that,” she said in a low, controlled voice. “Even if you hadn’t promised to bring dad’s cattle down to the valley, you wouldn’t stay away from the mountains.”
    “Why should I?” he demanded. “It’s my land. I have a right to be on it.”
    She swung toward him, her eyes blazing with sudden anger. “Is that why you’re going? Because it’s your land and you want to live on it? Or are you trying to make a fool of Bick Damson? Trying to dare him to do something to you? Dad told me how you plan to make your place into a paying ranch. But you’d risk that — you’d risk everything — just to prove that Damson and Vanner can’t run you out of the valley! It’s your stupid pride that makes you go back up there now!”
    She raked her heels across the sorrel’s flanks and sent it flying down the road toward the Winged L. Clay made no effort to follow. Her sudden attack had caught him by surprise and left him confused.
    A woman in love just made no sense sometimes, he decided as he jogged the dun along. With a man it was different. He had to learn to put his feelings aside when there was work to be done. Clay was not a man who expressed his emotions easily, and he knew he had not let Tonia know how empty these past five years had been.
    But, he thought, there was more behind Tonia’s outburst than her fear for him. He was sure she’d had more reasons than she’d given for not wanting him to go up into the mountains. For the first time since he’d known her, Clay had the feeling she had not been completely frank with him. And that was so unlike Tonia that it made no sense at all. Yet the more he turned over her words, the more sure he was that he was right.
    He worried the problem past Bick Damson’s land with its new fencing and elaborate house and on to the north edge of the Winged L. The road turned here, starting east toward its climb over the pass. Clay saw two men working in a hayfield bordering the road, and he recognized Pete Apley, the foreman of Judge Lyles’ ranch, and Bert Coniff, one of the hands who had hired on the year before Clay left the valley.
    He waved to them and then glanced back along the road. He caught a glimpse of Tonia and her sorrel racing up the lane leading to the