r in his
chair, his face twisting in his pain.

"Put some milk in it," he snarled. "Then hold it to my mouth. For the
love of Heaven, hurry, man!"

Then no man there doubted longer the mad tale Bud Lee had brought them.
Down from Trevors's sleeves, staining each hand, there had come a
broadening trickle of blood. Trevors set his teeth and waited. Benny
at last cooled the coffee and held it to his lips. Trevors drank
swiftly, draining the cup.

"Get this coat off me," he commanded. "Curse you, don't tear my arms
off! Slit the sleeves."

Benny's big, razor-edged butcher-knife cut away coat and shirt sleeves.
And at last, to the eager gaze of the men in the bunk-house, there
appeared the two wounds, one upon the outer right shoulder, the other
upon the left forearm.

It was Lee who, pushing the clumsy cook aside, silently made the two
bandages from strips of Trevors's shirt. It was Lee who brought a
flask of brandy from which Trevors drank deep.

And then came Judith.

They stared at her as they might have done had the heavens opened and
an angel come down, or the earth split and a devil sprung up. She
looked in upon them with quick, keen eyes which sought to take every
man's measure. They returned her regard with a variety of amazed
expressions. Never since these men had come to work for Bayne Trevors
had a woman so much as ridden by the door. And to have her stand
there, composed, utterly at her ease, her air vaguely authoritative, a
vitally vivid being who might, suddenly, have taken tangible form from
the dawn, bewildered them. Bud Lee had told of the coming of the Blue
Lake owner; he had not mentioned that that owner had brought his
daughter with him.

"I am Judith Sanford," she said in her abrupt fashion, quite as she had
made the announcement to Lee and Trevors. "This outfit belongs to me.
I have fired Trevors. You take your orders straight from me from now
on. Cookie, give me some coffee."

She came in without ceremony and sat down at the head of the table.
Benny gasped, stood for a moment rooted to the floor, and then,
Judith's eyes hard upon him, hastily brought the coffee. From some
emotion certainly not clear to him he went a violent red. Perhaps the
emotion was just sheer embarrassment. He brought hot cakes with one
hand while with the other he buttoned his gaping shirt-collar over a
bulging, hairy chest.

Men who had finished their breakfasts rose hastily with a marked
awkwar