ut out his hand.
But she slipped her own hands behind her.

"Good evening, Mr. Lee," said Judith brightly. "Really, you have taken
your time in making your first call. Won't you sit down?"

"No," said Bud Lee gravely. "I'll take mine standing, please!"

"Like a man to be shot at dawn?" cried Judith. "Dear me, Mr. Lee, that
sounds so tragic. What, pray, are you taking?"

"A new job," said Lee. "I've come to tell you that just being horse
foreman doesn't suit me any longer. What you need and need right away
is a general manager. That's what I want to be, your general manager,
Judith. For life!"

Judith laughed softly, happily. Her hands flew out to him like two
little homing birds, and she followed them--home.

"You'll find your work cut out for you, Mr. Lee," she told him.

[Illustration: "You'll find your work cut out for you."]

"It's the kind of work I want," answered Bud Lee.

Then suddenly her arms went about his neck and tears sprang into her
eyes and she set her lips to the cut he had sought to cover with his
hair, and took his sore, swathed hand tenderly into her own two hands,
laying it against her cheek.

"Carson telephoned me," she whispered, her lips trembling all of a
sudden. "He told me how Trevors fought . . . and how you fought! And
he was half crying over the telephone, he was so proud of you. And I
am proud of you! And--oh, Bud Lee, Bud Lee, I love you so!"

From without came the sound of the Blue Lake boys returning, Carson at
their head. Riding close together they were singing, their voices
floating through the night in an old cowboy song. Mrs. Simpson heard
and ran out into the courtyard to listen. Marcia and Pollock Hampton,
lost to all save each other in the shadows far down the veranda,
listened, and Marcia clapped her hands. The voices were to be heard
from afar, the strong voices of a score of men. The strange thing is
that neither Judith nor Bud Lee heard; that neither had the vaguest
consciousness just then that there were in all the world any other,
mortals than--Judith and Bud Lee.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JUDITH OF BLUE LAKE RANCH***

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