m Sleepy Cat.

They drove out in the evening, but the minute they reached the
ranch-house, Kate perceived something was up. Van Horn greeted her
with a good deal of freedom, Kate thought--but apologized for hurrying
away after she had shown him her new rifle--with the hint that they had
bigger game in sight just then, and after a long talk with her father
and much preparation he and Stone rode off, two of the men from the
bunk-house with them. Her father plainly let Kate see that he himself
had no intention of entertaining her. He was outside most of the time
and Kelly, the cook, being the only man to talk to, Kate in
self-defense went to bed.

During the night she was awakened by voices. Van Horn and Stone were
back and they were talking to her father in the living-room. Kate
thought at first some accident had happened. Van Horn, eager, pleased
and rapid in utterance, did much of the talking, Stone breaking in now
and again with a few words in harsh nasal tones--harsher tonight than
usual. Her father seemed only to ask a question once in a while. Kate
tried not to eavesdrop, but she could not occasionally help hearing
words about wire, which Van Horn was sure somebody would never find.
The men had apparently been somewhere and done something. The clink of
glasses indicated drinking, and there was much cursing of something or
somebody. Then the talk got loud and her father hushed it up and the
party went to bed.

There seemed something furtive and secret about the incident that Kate
could not fathom. Why should honest men get together in the dead of
night to exult and curse and drink? She composed herself to sleep
again; these were simply things she did not understand. She thought
she did not want to understand them, but even after she got back to the
Junction she wondered why her father should be mixed up in them.

Meantime she spent a week of delight at the ranch, mostly on horseback,
learning the Western horse and Western riding.

After her outing, Doubleday took Kate down to the Junction. He went on
to Sleepy Cat, but that night he came back ill. In the morning he was
not able to get up.

Kate telephoned, as he directed, to Sleepy Cat, for Doctor Carpy.

The doctor, when he came, looked Kate over with interest. He was a
smooth-faced, powerfully-built man, rough-looking and rough in speech,
but he knew his business. It was an acute attack of rheumatism, he
said, and he told Kate to keep her f