pose--that of presenting reasonably the reverse side of the argument.
Now, however, it merely stirred him up. He looked sharply at his daughter
with his small, piercing eyes.

"Do you defy me?" he thundered, amazed at the girl's temerity. "All I do
is try to think up ways of makin' yuh happy, an' now yuh insist on havin'
this scoundrel make love to yuh, whether I want it or not. Answer me this,
Julie, are you in love with him?"

"I've never met another man I cared as much for," she returned with calm
frankness, looking at him with big, unafraid brown eyes.

"Great Heavens!" cried Bissell, leaping out of his chair and raising his
clenched fists above his head. "That I should come to this! Julie, do yuh
know what yore sayin'? Do yuh know what yore doin'?"

"Yes, I do; and do you want to know the reason for it?"

"Yes."

"Because I think the things that have been done to Mr. Larkin are
contemptible and mean." There was no placidity in those brown eyes now.
They flashed fire. Her face had grown pale, and she, too, had risen to her
feet. "I'm a cowman's daughter, but still I can be reasonable. Our range
is free range, and he has a perfect right to walk his sheep north if he
wants to. And even if he hadn't, there is no excuse for the stampede that
took place the other night.

"And last of all, you have no right to keep Mr. Larkin here against his
will so that he does not know what is happening to the rest of his flocks.
I consider the whole thing a hideous outrage. But that isn't all. You have
talked to me this afternoon in a suspicious manner that you have no right
to use toward me. I am not a child, and shall think and act for myself."

"What do you mean by that? That you will help this scoundrel?"

"Yes, if I think it is the right thing to do."

Bissell started back as though someone had struck him. Then he seemed to
lose his strength and to shrivel up, consumed by the flame of his
bitterness and disappointment. At the sight, the girl's whole heart melted
toward the unhappy man, and she longed to throw her arms around him and
plead for forgiveness. But the same strain that had made her father what
he was, in his hard environment, was dominant in her, and she stood her
ground.

For a minute Bissell looked at her out of dull, hurt eyes. Then he
motioned toward the door.

"Go in," he said gently; "I don't want to see yuh."

CHAPTER XIII

THE HEATHEN CHINEE

Hard-winter Sims, lying at full length on t