ay. I don't want you leaving me in
the lurch. Do you want to go? Or do you want to stick?"

What did he want? He had anticipated an interference from the girl in
his management of the duty allotted him and no such interference had
come. She left him unhampered, even as she did Tripp and Carson. He
had his interest in his horses. It was pleasant here. This cabin was
a sort of home to him. Besides, he had the idea that Quinnion and
Shorty might again be heard from--that if Trevors was backing their
play, there would be other threats offered the Blue Lake outfit from
which he had no desire to run. There was such a thing as loyalty to
the home-range, and in the half-year he had worked here it had become a
part of him.

"I'll stick," he said quietly.

"I'm glad of that," replied Judith. "Oh, you'll have your work cut out
for you, Bud Lee, and, that you may be the better fitted to do it, I
want you to know just what I am up against."

She paused a moment, stirring her coffee with one of Lee's tin spoons,
gathering her thoughts. Then, speaking thoughtfully, she explained:

"It's a gamble, with us bucking the long odds. Dad left me a third
interest, clear, valued, counting stock, at a good deal more than four
hundred thousand dollars. He left me no cash. Dad never had any cash.
Just so soon as he got his hands on it he put it to work. I knew he
had planned taking over another one-third interest, and I went on with
his plans. I mortgaged my share for two hundred thousand dollars,
which I got at five per cent. That means I have to dig up each year,
just interest, ten thousand dollars. That's a pretty big lump, you
know."

"Yes," he admitted slowly. "That's big; mighty big."

"With the money I raised," Judith continued, "I bought out the third
owner, Timothy Gray. He let his holding go for three hundred and fifty
thousand. It was a bargain for me--if I can make a go of it. I still
owe, on the principal, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. I owe
on my mortgage two hundred thousand. Total of my indebtedness, three
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. And that's bigger, Bud Lee."

"Yes. That's bigger figures than I can quite get the hang of."

No wonder she had been crying. Even if everything went smooth on the
Blue Lake she, too, had her work cut out for her.

"Now," she ran on, her voice stirring him with the ringing note in it,
"I can make a go of it--if they will just let me alone! I am