"Then I'm with you,"' Grant declared with a grim smile. "Don't mistake me: I take my glass of lager when I feel like it—there's some right here in the house—but, if it's needful, I can do without. I'm not going into this thing to help you in preaching to whisky-tanks and toughs—it's the law I'm standing for. If what you suspect is going on, we'll soon have our colts rebranded and our calves missing. We have got to clean out Beamish's crowd."
"Thanks," said Hardie, with keen satisfaction.
He turned to George.
"I'd be glad of your support, Mr. Lansing."
George sat silent a moment or two while Flora watched him. Then he said quietly:
"My position's much the same as Mr. Grant's—I can do without. After what you have said about the Sachem, I'll join you."
"And you?" Hardie asked Edgar.
The lad laughed.
"I follow my leader. The loungers about the Sachem weren't civil to me; said unpleasant things about my appearance and my English clothes. To help to make them abstainers strikes me as a happy thought."
Flora glanced at him in amused reproof, and Hardie turned to Grant.