time. Have fired Trevors.
Running outfit myself. Need every cent we can raise to pay interest on
loans, men's salaries and keep going. This is final.

JUDITH SANFORD, _General Manager_.

"That may start his gray matter working," she ended as she clicked up
the receiver. "Now, Lee, will you stick with me ten days or so and
give me time to get a man in your place?"

"Yes, I'll do that, Miss Sanford."

"You will help me in every way you can while you are with me?"

"When I work for a man--or a woman," he added gravely, "I don't hold
back anything."

"All right. Then start in right now and tell me about the gang Trevors
has taken on. Are they all crooks?"

"I wouldn't say so. I wouldn't put it that strong."

"That little gray, quick-spoken man with the smelly pipe--he's
straight, isn't he?"

"That would be old Carson? Yes; he's a good man. You won't find a
better."

"Is he going to quit, too? Just because I've come?"

Lee shook his head. "If you work him right Carson will stick right
along. Being white clean through, being broader-minded than I am"--and
the twinkle came again into his eyes--"Carson'll show you a square
deal."

"Has he any love for Bayne Trevors?"

"Maybe you'd better ask Carson."

In a flash she was on her feet and had gone to the door. "Carson!" she
called loudly. "Come here, will you?"

There was a little silence, a low sound of laughter, then Carson's
sharp voice answering: "I'm coming!"

Judith went back to her chair. She did not speak until Carson's wiry
form slipped through the doorway. Then with the old cattleman's
shrewd, hard eyes upon her she turned from a clip full of papers she
had been looking through and spoke to him quietly:

"You used to work for the Granite Canyon crowd, didn't you, Carson?"

"Yes'm," he answered.

"Cattle foreman there for several years?"

"Yes'm."

"Helped clean out the Roaring Creek gang didn't you, Carson?"

Carson shifted a bit, colored under her fixed eyes, and finally
admitted:

"Yes'm."

"Haven't had a real first-class fight for quite a bit, have you,
Carson? Not since that gash on your jaw healed? Not since you and
Scotty Webb mixed with the Roaring Creekers?"

Carson rubbed his jaw, flashed a quick look at Bud Lee as though for
moral support, looked still further embarrassed, and finally choked
over his brief:

"No'm."

Judith sat smiling brightly up at his hard features. "I've heard dad
talk about that,"