rt of smile flitted across his features.

"Hah!" he ejaculated.

And Tresler went on with cold indifference. "And, in the meantime, I
may as well say that the primary object of my visit is to see Mr.
Marbolt, not his foreman. That, I believe," he added, pointing to the
building on the hill, "is his house."

Without waiting for a reply he stepped aside, and would have moved on.
But Jake had swung round, and his hand fell heavily upon his shoulder.

"No, you don't, my dandy cock!" he cried violently, his fingers
painfully gripping the muscle under the Norfolk jacket.

Springing aside, and with one lithe twist, in a flash Tresler had
released himself, and stood confronting the giant with blazing eyes
and tense drawn muscles.

"Lay a hand on me again, and there'll be trouble," he said sharply,
and there was an oddly furious burr in his speech.

The foreman stood for a moment as words failed him. Then his fury
broke loose.

"I told you jest now," he cried, falling back into the twang of the
country as his rage mastered him, "that I run this layout----"

"And I tell you," broke in the equally angry Tresler, "that I've
nothing to do with you or the ranch either until I have seen your
master. And I'll have you know that if there's any bulldozing to be
done, you can keep it until I am one of the 'hands.' You shan't lack
opportunity."

The tone was as scathing as the violence of his anger would permit. He
had not moved, except to thrust his right hand into his jacket pocket,
while he measured the foreman with his eyes and watched his every
movement.

He saw Harnach hunch himself as though to spring at him. He saw the
great hands clench at his sides and his arms draw up convulsively. He
saw the working face and the black eyes as they half closed and
reduced themselves to mere slits beneath the overshadowing brows. Then
the hoarse, rage-choked voice came.

"By G----! I'll smash you, you----"

"I shouldn't say it." Tresler's tone had suddenly changed to one of
icy coldness. The flash of a white dress had caught his eye. "There's
a lady present," he added abruptly. And at the same time he released
his hold on the smooth butt of a heavy revolver he had been gripping
in his pocket.

What might have happened but for the timely interruption it would be
impossible to say. Jake's arms dropped to his sides, and his attitude
relaxed with a suddenness that was almost ludicrous. The white dress
fluttered toward him, and Tres