s bluntly, "I am. What are you going to do about
it?"

"Ask for my time, I guess," and although his voice was gentle and even
pleasant, his eyes were hard. "I'll take my own little string and move
on.

"Curse it!" cried Trevors heatedly. "What difference does it make to
you? What business is it of yours how I sell? You draw down your
monthly pay, don't you? I raised you a notch last month without your
asking for it, didn't I?"

"That's so," agreed the foreman equably. "It's a cinch none of the
boys have any kick coming at the wages."

For a moment Trevors sat frowning up at Lee's inscrutable face. Then
he laughed shortly. "Look here, Bud," he said good-humoredly, an
obvious seriousness of purpose under the light tone. "I want to talk
with you before you do anything rash. Sit down." But Lee remained
standing, merely saying, "Shoot."

"I wonder," explained Trevors, "if the boys understand just the size of
the job I've got in my hands? You know that the ranch is a
million-dollar outfit; you know that you can ride fifteen miles without
getting off the home-range; you know that we are doing a dozen
different kinds of farming and stock-raising. But you don't know just
how short the money is! There's that young idiot now, Hampton. He
holds a third interest and I've got to consider what he says, even if
he is a weak-minded, inbred pup that can't do anything but spend an
inheritance like the born fool he is. His share is mortgaged; I've
tried to pay the mortgage off. I've got to keep the interest up.
Interest alone amounts, to three thousand dollars a year. Think of
that! Then there's Luke Sanford dead and his one-third interest left
to another young fool, a girl!"

Trevors's fist came smashing down upon his table. "A girl!" he
repeated savagely. "Worse than young Hampton, by Heaven! Every two
weeks she's writing for a report, eternally butting in, making
suggestions, hampering me until I'm sick of the job."

"That would be Luke's girl, Judith?"

"Yes. Two of the three owners' kids, writing me at every turn. And
the third owner, Timothy Gray, the only sensible one of the lot, has
just up and sold out his share, and I suppose I'll be hearing next that
some superannuated female in an old lady's home has inherited a fortune
and bought him out. Why, do you think I'd hold on to my job here for
ten minutes if it wasn't that my reputation is in making a go of the
thing? And now you, the best man I'