water pail and stamped to
the cook shack.

CHAPTER XIII

THE STAR C GIVES WELCOME

The Limping Water, within a mile after it passed Ford's Station, turned
abruptly and flowed almost due west for thirty miles, where it again
proceeded southward. At the second bend stood the ranch houses and corrals
of the Star C, in a country rich in grass and water. Its cows numbered
far into the thousands and its horses were the best for miles around,
while the whole ranch had an air of opulence and plenty. Its ranch
house was a curiosity, for even now there were lace curtains in some of
the windows, badly torn and soiled, but still lace curtains; and on the
floors of several rooms were thick carpets, now covered with dust and
riding paraphernalia. Oddly shaped and badly scratched chairs were
piled high with accumulated trash, and the few gilt-framed paintings
which graced the walls were hanging awry and were torn and scratched. At
one time an Eastern woman had tried to live there, but that was when
the owner of the ranch and his wife had been enthusiasts. New York
regained and kept its own, and they now would rather receive quarterly
reports by mail than daily reports in person. The foreman and his wolf
hounds reigned supreme, not at all bothered by the stiff furniture and
lace curtains, because he would rather be comfortable than stylish,
and so lived in two rooms which he had fitted up to his ideas. Carpets and
two-inch spurs cause profanity and ravelings, and as for pictures, they
have a most annoying way of tilting when one hangs a six-shooter on
one corner of the frame, and they are so inviting that one is constantly
forgetting. So the unstable pictures, the dress-parade chairs, bothersome
curtains and clutching carpets were left under the dust.

The Star C, being in a part of the country little traversed and crossed
by no trails, was removed from the zone of The Orphan's activities and
had no cause for animosity, save that induced by his reputation. Several
of its punchers had seen him, and all were well versed in his exploits,
for frequently Ford's Station shared its hospitality with one or more of
them; and in Ford's Station at that time The Orphan was the chief topic
of conversation and the bone of contention. But the foreman of the Star C
would not know him if he should see him, unless by intuition.

Blake was a man much after the pattern of Shields in his ideas, and the
two were warm friends and had roughed it