“I’d say most of you know me, too. We grew up together. Some of us were enemies in a range war we didn’t start. We’ve shed blood together. We’ve fought to protect our homes and our families. We’ve shared some good times as well as bad. But a new fight is just beginning.

“It’s no secret that my opponent is wealthy enough to buy half the state of Colorado. Well, fine. But I don’t intend to make this a competition to buy your vote. I can’t afford it. Like many of you, I’m having trouble making ends meet. And it looks as if the hard times are going to get worse before they get better.

“I’m not about to give up, though. Not in this lifetime. I’ll be damned if I’ll let all the sweat and blood and tears go for naught. But the fight is bigger than any one man. I can’t win it alone. I need your help. I can’t promise you a rosy future. I can only promise to try to protect our way of life, to keep this community a good place to raise our families. I can only say that we have to stick together. This is my land—mine and yours. And I’m asking you to help me keep it that way.”

Heather felt her heart swell with pride as Sloan interrupted the stunned silence to step down from the platform. He hadn’t stuck precisely to the script they’d worked out during long hours in his study, but he’d spoken simply and eloquently, from the heart.

And the sparse speech clearly had a powerful impact. He had touched his audience if the reaction of the crowd was any measure. Somebody—a cowboy from one of the neighboring ranches, perhaps—let out a piercing whistle, before the rest of the crowd broke into applause that seemed deafening in contrast to the reception Quinn Lovell had received.

When a chant of “Sloan, Sloan, Sloan…” broke out, Harvey Baxter stood up, raising his hands to ask for quiet. “Well now, we thank you two gentlemen for the fine words. But now I think we need to start the dancin’. What do ya say, folks!”

The chants turned to whoops as rowdy cowpunchers tossed their hats in the air and scurried to find a female partner. A half-dozen couples had taken to the grassy floor by the time the fiddles launched into a lively reel, and more followed suit directly.

Throughout the evening, quite a number of people came up to congratulate Sloan for his insightful remarks and promised to support him. Lovell appeared to take his temporary setback with composure, although once Heather caught him studying Sloan with a dark look that disturbed her.