wn.

Around the table the chairs in which the men had sat throughout the
evening still ranged themselves in a semi-circle, vaguely suggestive of
the conference of the past few hours, with all its possibilities of good
and evil, its significance of a future big with portent. The room was
still. Only on the cushions of the chair that Annixter had occupied, the
cat, Princess Nathalie, at last comfortably settled in her accustomed
place, dozed complacently, her paws tucked under her breast, filling the
deserted room with the subdued murmur of her contented purr.

CHAPTER IV

On the Quien Sabe ranch, in one of its western divisions, near the line
fence that divided it from the Osterman holding, Vanamee was harnessing
the horses to the plough to which he had been assigned two days before,
a stable-boy from the division barn helping him.

Promptly discharged from the employ of the sheep-raisers after the
lamentable accident near the Long Trestle, Vanamee had presented himself
to Harran, asking for employment. The season was beginning; on all
the ranches work was being resumed. The rain had put the ground into
admirable condition for ploughing, and Annixter, Broderson, and Osterman
all had their gangs at work. Thus, Vanamee was vastly surprised to find
Los Muertos idle, the horses still in the barns, the men gathering in
the shade of the bunk-house and eating-house, smoking, dozing, or going
aimlessly about, their arms dangling. The ploughs for which Magnus and
Harran were waiting in a fury of impatience had not yet arrived, and
since the management of Los Muertos had counted upon having these in
hand long before this time, no provision had been made for keeping the
old stock in repair; many of these old ploughs were useless, broken, and
out of order; some had been sold. It could not be said definitely
when the new ploughs would arrive. Harran had decided to wait one week
longer, and then, in case of their non-appearance, to buy a consignment
of the old style of plough from the dealers in Bonneville. He could
afford to lose the money better than he could afford to lose the season.

Failing of work on Los Muertos, Vanamee had gone to Quien Sabe.
Annixter, whom he had spoken to first, had sent him across the ranch
to one of his division superintendents, and this latter, after
assuring himself of Vanamee's familiarity with horses and his previous
experience--even though somewhat remote--on Los Muertos, had taken him
o