's eyes narrowed imperceptibly. "I didn't plan to do any selling
for six months yet," he said, not in expostulation but merely in
explanation. "They're not ready."

"How many three-year-olds have you got in your string in Big Meadow?"
asked Trevors crisply.

"Counting those eleven Red Duke colts?"

"Counting everything. How many?"

"Seventy-three."

The general manager's pencil wrote upon the pad in front of him "73,"
then swiftly multiplied it by 50. Lee saw the result, 3,650 set down
with the dollar sign in front of it. He said nothing.

"What would you say to fifty dollars a head for them?" asked Trevors,
whirling again in his swivel chair. "Three thousand six fifty for the
bunch?"

"I'd say the same," answered Lee deliberately, "that I'd say to a man
that offered me two bits for Daylight or Ladybird. I just naturally
wouldn't say anything at all."

"Who are Daylight and Ladybird?" demanded Trevors.

"They're two of _my_ little horses," said Lee gently, "that no man's
got the money to buy."

Trevors smiled cynically. "What are the seventy-three colts worth
then?"

"Right now, when I'm just ready to break 'em in," said Bud Lee
thoughtfully, "the worst of that string is worth fifty dollars. I'd
say twenty of the herd ought to bring fifty dollars a head; twenty more
ought to bring sixty; ten are worth seventy-five; ten are worth an even
hundred; seven of the Red Duke stock are good for a hundred and a
quarter; the other four Red Dukes and the three Robert the Devils are
worth a hundred and fifty a head. The whole bunch, an easy fifty-seven
hundred little iron men. Which," he continued dryly, "is considerable
more than the thirty-six hundred you're talking about. And, give me
six months, and I'll boost that fifty-seven hundred. Lord, man, that
chestnut out of Black Babe by Hazard, is a real horse! Fifty
dollars----"

He stared hard at Trevors a moment. And then, partially voicing the
thought with which he had grappled upon the corral gate, he added
meditatively: "There's something almighty peculiar about an outfit
that will listen to a man offer fifty bucks on a string like that."

His eyes, cool and steady, met Trevors's in a long look which was
little short of a challenge.

"Just how far does that go, Lee?" asked the manager curtly.

"As far as you like," replied the horse foreman coolly. "Are you going
to sell those three-year-olds for thirty-six hundred?"

"Yes," answered Trevor