Chapter 9 Summary

A man named Hans Brumbaugh comes to realize that the men seeking gold are starving because they are so busy seeking gold they haven't time to do anything else. Though there's money to buy food, there's none available for sale. Brumbaugh arranges to buy some acres from Levi and then finds a way to irrigate some additional land, creating a reasonably sized farm. He and his family work at the farming and are soon successful. As time passes, he's joined by a second farmer and the battle for land between the farmers and the cattlemen officially begins. When there's a shootout at the neighboring farm, Brumbaugh digs in and John Skimmerman comes to his aid, effectively fighting off the first advance and remaining.

One of the English investors, a man named Buckford, visits Colorado with his daughter, Charlotte, who decides she wants to...