many vagaries in the actions of Oliver
Jordan in the past few months that this unannounced drive to an
undetermined destination was not particularly surprising. It was only
the delegation of such authority to Hervey that astonished her.

She forgot even Red Jim Perris and the lost Coles horses in her
abstraction, for whenever she looked down the table she saw nothing
saving the erect, burly form of the foreman, swelling, so it seemed to
her, with a newly acquired and aggressive importance. However, he had
the written word of her father, and she had to set her teeth over her
irritation and digest it as well as he could.

Hervey had presented reasonable excuses, to be sure. There was certain
work of fence-repairing, certain construction of sheds which he
had called to the attention of Oliver Jordan and which Jordan had
commissioned him to overlook during his absence.

"I told him they wasn't any use in writing out a note like this one,"
Hervey had assured her, "but you know how the chief is, these days.
Sort of set in his ways when he makes up his mind about anything."

And this was so entirely true that she was half-inclined to dismiss
the whole matter from her mind. Oliver Jordan paid so little heed to
the running of the ranch and when he did make a suggestion he was so
peremptory about it, that this commission to Hervey was not altogether
astonishing. Nevertheless, it kept her absent-minded throughout
breakfast.

Red Perris was naturally somewhat offended by the blankness of her eye
as she passed him over. She had been so extremely intimate and cordial
the night before that this neglect was almost an insult. Perhaps she
had only been playing a game--trying to amuse herself during a dull
hour instead of truly wishing to please him. He grew childishly sulky
at the thought. After all, there _was_ a good deal of the spoiled
child about Red Jim. He had had his way in the world so much that
opposition or neglect threw him into a temper.

And he stamped out of the dining-room ahead of the rest of the men,
his head down, his brows black. Lew Hervey, following with the other
men, had noted everything. It behooved him to be on the watch during
the time of trial and triumph and at breakfast he had observed Red
Perris looking at the girl a dozen times with an anticipatory smile
which changed straightway to glumness when her glance passed him
carelessly by. And now Hervey communicated his opinions to the others
on the way t