t: How did it come about that
they had addressed, not her, but Pollock Hampton? Was this just a
trifle?

Long ago Judith had told herself that she must keep her two eyes wide
open for seeming trifles. In spite of her, though she scoffed at her
"nerves," the girl had the uneasy conviction that this offer had been
prompted by Trevors; that Trevors, for purposes of his own, had given
instructions that the letter be addressed to Hampton; that this was the
first sign of a fresh campaign directed against her from the dark; that
trouble was again beginning.

Thoughtfully she smoothed out the letter, impaling it on her file.

XXII

PLAYING THE GAME

Pollock Hampton, Foreman-at-Large, came and went on the ranch, carrying
orders, taking always a keen interest in whatever work fell to hand, an
interest of a fresh kind, in that it was born of a growing
understanding. The men grew to like him; Bud Lee tactfully sought to
acquaint him with many ranch matters which would prove of value to him.
Carson, however, grown nervous over the new method in stock-raising
still in its experimental stage, was given to take any suggestion from
Hampton in the light of a personal affront.

"Damn him," he growled deep in his throat when Hampton had ridden out
with word to shift one of the herds into a fresh pasture, an act on
which Carson had already decided, "some day I'll just take him between
my thum' an' finger an' anni-hilate him."

The greater bulk of the stock had been steadily shifted higher in the
hills. The hogs grazed on the slopes at the north of the Lower End;
cattle and horses had been pushed eastward to the little valleys in the
mountains about the lake. Even the plateau, where the old cabin stood,
was now stocked with Lee's prize string of horses. Then, one day
Hampton came galloping through the herds of shorthorns, seeking Carson.

"Crowd them down to the Lower End again," he shouted above the din.
"Cut out the scrawny ones and haze the rest into the pens."

Carson's steel-blue eyes snapped, his teeth showed like a dog's.

"Drunk?" he sneered. "What's eating you?"

"Do as you're told," retorted Hampton hotly. "Those are orders from
headquarters and it's up to you to obey them. Get me?"

"If ever I do get you, sonny," grunted Carson, "there won't be enough
of you left for the dawgs to quarrel over. Orders or no orders, I
ain't going to do no such fool thing."

Hampton reined his horse in closer, staring