d Duke colt
like Comet!"

She stared at Lee as though she could not believe it. He merely stared
back at her, wondering just how much she knew about horse-flesh.

Then, suddenly, she whirled again upon Trevors.

"I came out to see if you were a crook or just a fool," she told him,
her words like a slap in his face. "No man could be so big a fool as
that! You--you crook!"

The muscles under Bayne Trevors's jaws corded. "You've said about
enough," he shot back at her. "And even if you do own a third of this
outfit, I'll have you understand that I am the manager here and that I
do what I like."

From her bosom she snatched a big envelope, tossing it to the table.
"Look at that," she ordered him. "You big thief! I've mortgaged my
holding for fifty thousand dollars and I've bought in Timothy Gray's
share. I swing two votes out of three now, Bayne Trevors. And the
first thing I do is run you out, you great big grafting fathead! You
_would_ chuck Luke Sanford's outfit to the dogs, would you? Get off
the ranch. You're fired!"

"You can't do a thing like this!" snapped Trevors, after one swift
glance at the papers he had whisked out of their covering.

"I can't, can't I?" she jeered at him. "Don't you fool yourself for
one little minute! Pack your little trunk and hammer the trail."

"I'll do nothing of the kind. Why, I don't know even who you are! You
say that you are Judith Sanford." He shrugged his massive shoulders.
"How do I know what game you are up to? Wayward maidens," and in his
rage he sneered at her evilly, "have been known before to lie like
other people!"

"You can't bluff me for two seconds, Bayne Trevors," she blazed at him.
"You know who I am, all right. Send for Sunny Harper," she ended
sharply.

"Discharged three months ago," Trevors told her with a show of teeth.

"Johnny Hodge, then," she commanded. "Or Tod Bruce or Bing Kelley.
They all know me."

"Fired long ago, all of them," laughed Trevors, "to make room for
competent men."

"To make room for more crooks!" she cried, her own brown hands balled
into fists scarcely less hard than Trevors's had been. Then for the
third time she turned upon Lee. "You are one of his new thieves, I
suppose?"

"Thank you, ma'am," said Bud Lee gravely.

"Well, answer me. Are you?"

"No, ma'am," he told her, with no hint of a twinkle in his calm eyes.
"Leastwise, not his exactly. You see, I do all my killing and highway
robbing on my