she said thoughtfully. "I guess I've got at least
one real man on the ranch, Carson. Oh, don't dodge like that! I'm not
going to put my arms around you and kiss you on the top of your head.
But I do love a man that loves a fair fight. . . . Lee, here, has
given me his promise to stick on the job for ten days or so, to give me
time to get some one else to look after my horses."

"Yes'm," said Carson, fingering his pipe and looking down.

For a few moments the girl sat still, now and then flashing a quick,
keen look from one to the other of her two foremen. Then, abruptly,
her eyes on Carson, she snapped: "You've found out, more or less
recently, haven't you, that Bayne Trevors is a crook? You've perhaps
even guessed that he's been taking money from me with one hand and from
the Western Lumber with the other?"

"Yes'm," said Carson. "I doped it up like that."

"Why," cried the girl, "he's fired all of the old men and Heaven knows
how many of his sort he's put in their places! Help me clean 'em out,
Carson! Where will we begin? I've chucked Trevors and Ward Hannon.
Who goes next, Carson?"

"Benny the cook," said Carson gently. "An' I'd be obliged, ma'am, if
you'd let me go boot him off'n the ranch."

"That's talking," she said enthusiastically. "You can attend to him.
Any one else?"

Carson shook his head. "I got my suspicions," he said. "But that's
all I'm dead sure on."

"The others can wait then. Now, I'm taking a gamble on you and Lee.
You have all kinds of chances to double-cross me. But I've got to take
a chance now and then. I'm going to tell you something: Trevors is
trying to sell me out to the Western Lumber people. He is one of their
crowd and has been since they bought him up six months ago. They want
our timber tract over the north ridge but they don't think they will
have to pay the price. They want the lake; they want the water-power
of Blue Lake River! They want pretty well all we've got. The ranch
outside the stock we've got running on it, is worth a clean million
dollars if it is worth a nickel. Well, the Western Lumber Company has
offered us exactly two hundred and fifty thousand! Only quarter of
what it's worth! They know we're mortgaged; they know the interest we
have to pay is heavy; they know Pollock Hampton, for one, is a spender
who knows nothing about big business; they think that I, because I'm a
girl, am a fool. It looks to them like a melon easy to cut and ri