Jew, determined on having his pound of flesh. But a woman
outwitted him.

CHAPTER X

"AUNT" MARGARET REFLECTS

It was almost dark when Jacky returned to the ranch. She had left "Lord"
Bill at the brink of the great keg, whence he had returned to his own
place. Her first thought, on entering the house, was for the letter
which she had left for her uncle. It was gone. She glanced round the
room uncertainly. Then she stood gazing into the stove, while she idly
drummed with her gauntleted fingers upon the back of a chair. She had as
yet removed neither her Stetson hat nor her gauntlets.

Her strong, dark face was unusually varying in its expression. Possibly
her thoughts were thus indexed. Now, as she stood watching the play of
the fire, her great, deep eyes would darken with a grave, almost anxious
expression; again they would smile with a world of untold happiness in
their depths. Again they would change, in a flash, to a hard, cold gleam
of hatred and unyielding purpose; then slowly, a tender expression, such
as that of a mother for Her new-born babe, would creep into them and
shine down into the depths of the fire with a world of sweet sympathy.
But through all there was a tight compression of the lips, which spoke
of the earnest purpose which governed her thoughts; a slight pucker of
the brows, which surely told of a great concentration of mind.

Presently she roused herself, and, walking to where a table-bell stood,
rang sharply upon it. Her summons was almost immediately answered by the
entry of a servant.

Jacky turned as the door opened, and fired an abrupt question.

"Has Uncle John been in, Mamie?"

The girl's face had resumed its usual strong, kindly expression.
Whatever was hidden behind that calm exterior, she had no intention of
giving a chance observer any clew to it.

"No, miss," the servant replied, in that awestruck tone which domestics
are apt to use when sharply interrogated. She was an intelligent-looking
girl. Her dark skin and coarse black hair pronounced her a half-breed.
Her mistress had said "blood is thicker than water." All the domestics
under Jacky's charge hailed from the half-breed camp.

"Was my message delivered to him?"

Unconcernedly as she spoke she waited with some anxiety for the answer.

"Oh, yes, miss. Silas delivered it himself. The master was in company
with Mr. Lablache and the doctor, miss," added the girl, discreetly.

"And what did he say?"

"He sent Si