“I don't know. Hell, I don't even know the goddamned oath. I'm just making this up because you have a gun pointed at me.”

“Is it going to be official, then?”

“I guess it is.”

“It better be, because I got to arrest you boys. That's better for you than the other thing I got in mind.”

“All right. ‘I, Tom Power, swear to uphold the laws of the United States and to protect her against intruders—’”

“Before it was ‘defend.’”

“‘Defend,’ ‘protect,’ it don't matter. Say what you want to say.”

“No. It's got to be right. I got to arrest you.”

“You got us with our hands up, standing in the middle of the creek. How goddamned arrested do you want us to be?”

“This has to be right. That's all I'm saying.”

“All right. ‘I, Tom Power, swear to uphold the laws of the United States and to protect her against intruders.’” He paused, obviously grasping for some other thought. “So help me God.”

“Did you take that oath?”

“Something like that. I can't remember all the words. No one was holding a gun on me.”

“It didn't work, did it?”

“Pardon?”

“The oath. It didn't work. You didn't uphold the laws. You busted them.”

“Tom,” Kirby struggled. It was like talking to a child, an armed child. “I didn't steal your cattle or hurt them in any way, did I?”

“I guess not.”

“I just moved them.”

“Away from the good grass.”

“Yes. Away from the good grass.”

“That ain't the law, is it?” Power asked.

“No. But it ain't exactly against the law, either.”

“Does the law say I can graze my cattle on open range?”

“It does. Could you please put that gun away?”

“I could,” Tom said. “But I won't. I got you talking to me like I somehow matter, and laughing boy over there,” he motioned toward Swift, “he ain't laughing. I figure that's all the gun. Now, if the law says I can graze my cows on open range, and you come in and chase them off, that's against the law.”

“Not exactly, is what I'm saying—”

“And how is it different? Is it different for a Cleghorne than a Power?”

“No. No, it ain't.”

“Yes. Yes, the hell it is. It's always different for the rich. You would think the law would try to help the poor, to sort of even things out, at least keep the rich from shitting on them. But it don't. The law's on the side of the rich. Always. The law's for making the rich richer.”

“Well, Tom, I take your point. But Cleghorne, he's a powerful man in these parts. He makes a lot of money, and he does a lot of good, too. He sells a lot of beef, he hires a lot of hands, and he buys a lot of supplies. He paid for the library, too. Cleghorne cattle don't flourish, Graham County don't flourish. That's all it is.”