Stratton was never sure just how long he stood staring at her in dumb, dazed bewilderment. After those mental pictures of the Mary Thorne he had expected to find, it was small wonder that the sight of this slip of a black-frocked girl, with her soft voice, her tawny-golden hair and wistful eyes, should stun¹ him into temporary speechlessness. Even when he finally pulled himself together to feel a hot flush flaming in his face and find one gloved hand recklessly crumpling² his new Stetson, he could not quite credit the evidence of his hearing.

 

"I--I beg pardon," he said stiffly. "But it doesn't seem possible that--"

 

He hesitated. The girl's smile deepened whimsically.

 

"I know," she said ruefully. "It never does. Nobody seems to think a girl can seriously attempt to run a cattle-ranch³--even the way I'm trying to run it, with a capable foreman to look after things. Sometimes I wonder if--"

 

She paused, her glance falling on the book she held. Stratton saw that it was a shabby account-book, a stubby pencil thrust between the leaves.

 

"Yes?" he prompted, scarcely aware what made him ask the question.

 

She looked up at him, her eyes a little wider than before. They were a warm hazel, and for an instant in their depths Stratton glimpsed a troubled expression, so veiled and swiftly passing that a moment later he could not be sure he had read aright.

 

"It's nothing," she shrugged⁵. "You probably know what a lot of nagging⁶ little worries a ranchman has, and sometimes it seems to me they all have to come at once. I suppose even a man gets a bit discouraged, now and then."

 

"He sure does," agreed Buck⁷. "What--er--particular sort of worry do you mean?"

 

He asked the question impulsively⁸ without realizing how it might sound, coming from a total stranger. The girl's slim figure stiffened⁹ and her chin went up. Then--perhaps something in his expression told her he had not meant to be impertinent--her face cleared.

 

"The principal one is lack of help," she explained readily enough, and yet Stratton got a curious impression, somehow, that this wasn't really the worst of her troubles. "We're awfully¹⁰ short-handed." She hesitated an instant and then went on frankly¹¹, "To tell the truth, when you first came in I was hoping you might be looking for a job."

 

For an instant Buck had all he could do to conceal¹² his amazement¹³ at this extraordinary turn of events.

 

"You mean I'd stand a chance of being taken on?" he countered, sparring for time.

 

"Of course! That is--You are a cow-puncher, aren't you?"

 

Stratton's lips twitched¹⁵ slightly.

 

"I've worked around cattle all my life."

 

"Then naturally it would be all right. I should be very glad to hire you. Tex Lynch usually looks after all that, but he's away this afternoon and there's no reason why I shouldn't--" Her quaint¹⁶ air of dignity was marred¹⁷ by a sudden, amused twitch¹⁴ of the lips. "I'm really awfully pleased you did come to me," she smiled. "He's been telling me for over two weeks that he couldn't hire a man for love or money; it'll be amusing to show him what I've done, sitting quietly here at home."

 

"That's all settled, then?" Stratton had been doing some rapid thinking. "You'd like me to start in right away, I suppose? That'll suit me fine. My name's Bob Green. If you'll just explain to Lynch that I'm hired, I'll go down to the bunk¹⁸-house and he can put me to work when he comes back."

 

With a slight bow, he was moving away when Miss Thorne stopped him.

 

"Wait!" she cried. "Why, you haven't said a word about wages."

 

Buck turned back, biting his lip and inwardly cursing himself for his carelessness.

 

"I s'posed it would be the usual forty dollars," he explained.

 

"We pay that for new hands," the girl informed him in some surprise. She sat down beside the table and opened her book. "I can put you down for forty, I suppose, and then Tex will tell me what it ought to be after he's seen you work. Green, did you say?"

 

"Robert Green."

 

"And the address?"

 

Buck scratched his head.

 

"I don't guess I've got any," he returned. "I used to punch cows in Texas, but I've been away two years and a half, and the last outfit¹⁹ I was with has sold out to farmers."

 

"Oh!" She looked up swiftly and her gaze leaped unerringly to the scar which showed below his tumbled hair. "Oh! I see. You--you've been through the war."

 

Her voice broke a little, and to Buck's astonishment²⁰ she turned quite white as her eyes sought the book again. A sudden fear smote²¹ him that she had guessed his real identity, but he dismissed the notion quickly. Such a thing was next to impossible when she had never set eyes upon him before to-day.

 

"That's all, I think," she said presently in a low voice. "You'll find the bunk-house, at the foot of the slope beside the creek²². I'll speak to Tex as soon as he comes back."

 

Outside the ranch house, Buck paused for a moment or two, ostensibly to stare admiringly at a carefully tended flower-bed, but in reality to adjust his mind to the new and extraordinary situation. During the last two hours he had speculated a good deal on this interview, but not even his wildest imaginings had pictured the turn it had actually taken.

 

"Hired as a puncher on my own ranch by the girl whose father stole it from me!" he murmured under his breath. "It's a scream! Darned if it wouldn't make a good vaudeville²³ turn."

 

But as he walked slowly back to where he had left his horse, Stratton's face grew thoughtful. He was trying to analyze²⁴ the motives²⁵ which had prompted him to accept such a position and found them a trifle mixed. Undeniably the girl's unexpected personality influenced him considerably²⁶. She did not strike him, even remotely, as the sort who would deliberately²⁷ do anything dishonest. And though Buck knew there were women who might be able to assume that air of almost childlike innocence²⁸, he did not believe, somehow, that in her case it was assumed. At any rate a little delay would do no harm. By accepting the proffered²⁹ job he would be able to study the lady and the situation at his leisure. Also--and this he told himself was even more important--he would have a chance of quietly investigating conditions on the ranch. Pop Daggett's vague hints, his own observations, and the intuition he had that Miss Thorne was worrying about something much more vital than the mere³⁰ lack of hands, all combined to make him feel that things were not going right at the Shoe-Bar. Of course it might be simply a case of rotten management. But in the back of Buck's mind there lurked³¹ a curious notion that something deeper and more far-reaching was going on beneath the surface, though of what nature he could not even guess.

 

Leading the roan into a corral which ranged beyond the kitchen, Stratton unsaddled him and turned him loose. Having hung the saddle and bridle³² in the adjacent shed, he tucked his bundle under one arm and headed for the bunk-house. He was within a few yards of the entrance to the long, adobe³³ structure when the door was suddenly flung open and a slim, slight figure, hatless and stripped to the waist, plunged³⁴ out, closely pursued by three other men.

 

He ran blindly with head down, and Buck had just time to drop his bundle and extend both arms to prevent a collision. An instant later his tense muscles quivered under the impact of some hundred and thirty pounds of solid bone and muscle; the runner staggered and flung up his head, a gasp³⁵ of terror jolted³⁶ from his lips.

 

"Oh!" he said more quietly, his tone an equal blend of astonishment and relief. "I thought--Don't let 'em--"

 

He broke off, flushing. He was a pleasant-faced youngster of not more than eighteen or nineteen, with a tangled³⁷ mop of blonde hair and blue eyes, the pupils of which were curiously³⁸ dilated³⁹. Stratton, whose extended arms had caught the boy just under the armpits, could feel his heart pounding furiously.

 

"What's the matter, kid?" he asked briefly⁴⁰.

 

"They were going to brand me--on the back," the boy muttered.

 

Over the fellow's bare, muscular shoulders Buck's glance swept the trio who had pulled up just outside the bunk-house door. They seemed typical cow-punchers in dress and manner. Two of them were tall and well set up; the third was short and stocky and held a branding iron in one hand. Meeting Stratton's gaze, he laughed loudly.

 

"By cripes, Bud! Yuh shore are easy. I thought yuh had more guts⁴¹ than to be scared of an iron that's hardly had the chill took off."

 

He guffawed⁴² again, the other two joining in. A flush crept up into the boy's face, but his lips were firm now, and as he turned to face the others his eyes narrowed slightly.

 

"If it's so cold as that mebbe you'd like me to try it on yuh," he suggested significantly.

 

The short man haw-hawed again, but not quite so boisterously⁴³. Buck noticed that he held the branding iron carefully away from his leg.

 

"I shore wouldn't hollar like you done 'fore⁴ I was touched," he retorted. "Wal, we got his goat good that time, didn't we, Butch? Better come in an' git yore shirt on 'fore the boss sees yuh half naked."

 

He turned and disappeared into the bunk-house, followed by the two other punchers. Buck picked up his bundle and glanced at the boy.

 

"Seems like you've got a right sociable⁴⁴, amusing bunch around here," he drawled.

 

The youngster's lips parted impulsively, to close as swiftly over his white teeth.

 

"Oh, they're a great lot of jokers," he returned non-committally, moving toward the door. "Coming in?"

 

The room they entered was long and rather narrow, with built-in bunks⁴⁵ occupying most of the wall space, while the usual assemblage of bridles⁴⁶, ropes, old hats, and garments, hanging from pegs⁴⁷, crowded the remainder. Opposite the door stood a rusty⁴⁸, pot-bellied stove which gave forth⁴⁹ a heat that seemed rather superfluous⁵⁰ on such a warm evening. The stocky fellow, having leaned his branding-iron against the adobe chimney, was occupied in closing the drafts. His two companions, both rolling cigarettes, stood beside him, while lounging at a rough table to the left of the door sat two other men, one of them idly shuffling⁵¹ a pack of dirty cards. As he entered, Stratton was conscious of the intent scrutiny⁵² of all five, and an easy, careless smile curved his lips.

 

"Reckon this is the bunk-house, all right," he drawled. "The lady told me it was down this way. My name's Bob Green--Buck for short. I've just been hired to show you guys how to punch cows proper."

 

There was a barely perceptible silence, broken by one of the men at the table.

 

"Hired?" he repeated curtly⁵³. "Why, I thought Tex went to town."

 

"Tex?" queried⁵⁴ Stratton. "Oh, you mean the foreman. The lady did say something about that when she signed me up. Said she'd tell him about it when he came back."

 

He was aware of a swift exchange of glances between several of the men. The stocky fellow suddenly abandoned his manipulation of the stove-dampers and came forward.

 

"Oh, that's it?" he remarked with an amiable⁵⁵ grin. "Tex most always does the hirin', yuh see. Glad to know yuh. My name's McCabe--Slim, they calls me, 'count uh my sylph-like figger. These here guys is Bill Joyce an' his side-kick, Butch Siegrist; likewise Flint Kreeger an' Doc Peters over to the table. Bud Jessup yuh already met."

 

He chuckled⁵⁶, and Buck glancing toward the corner where the youngster was tucking in the tails of his flannel⁵⁷ shirt, smiled slightly.

 

"Got acquainted kinda sudden, didn't we?" he grinned. "Glad to meet you gents. Whereabouts is a bunk I can stake my claim to?"

 

"This here's vacant," spoke⁵⁸ up Bud Jessup quickly, indicating one next to his own.

 

Buck stepped over and tossed his bundle into it. As he did so the raucous⁵⁹ clanging of a bell sounded from the direction of the ranch-house, accompanied by a stentorian⁶⁰ shout: "Grub-pile!" which galvanized the punchers into action.

 

Stratton and the boy were the last to leave the room, and as he reached the door Buck noticed a tiny wisp of smoke curling up from the floor to one side of the stove. Looking closer he saw that it was caused by the branding-iron, one corner of which rested on the end of a board where the rough flooring came in contact with the square of hard-packed earth beneath the stove. Bud Jessup saw it, too, and without comment he stepped over and moved the iron to a safer position.

 

Still without words, the two left the bunk-house. But as they headed for the kitchen Buck's eyes narrowed slightly and he flashed a momentary⁶¹ glance at his companion which was full of curiosity and thoughtful speculation⁶².

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