n chloroform?"

"You've hit it!" he exclaimed wonderingly. "How'd you know?"

"I haven't been loafing on the job the last six months," she laughed.
"I've been at the school at Davis and hobnobbing with some of the
university men at Berkeley. They're doing some great work there. Doc,
I'll want to talk to you about it. You're going down there, expenses
paid, to brush up with a course or two this year. Now, how soon can
you get back here?--Trevors? Oh, Trevors is fired. I'm running the
ranch myself. And, Doc, I need a few men like you! Can you come early
to-morrow?--To-night? You're a God-blessed brick! Yes, I'll stop that
murderous sulphur treatment if it isn't too late. Good-by."

She lost no time in calling for Bill Crowdy, the man whom Trevors had
put into Tripp's place.

"By the way," she said when the man with the voice which had sounded so
boyish in her ears answered again, "who are you?"

"Ed Masters," he told her. "Electrician, you know."

A glance at the pay-roll in front of her showed that Edward Masters,
general electrician, was a new man and was drawing eighty-five dollars
monthly.

"What are you doing this afternoon?" she demanded sharply--"just
hanging around the office? Is that the way you earn your eighty-five
dollars?"

"Not always. But Trevors told me to be on hand to-day to take some
orders."

"What work?"

"Don't know," he said frankly. "He didn't say."

"Well," said Judith, "I'll tell you one thing, Ed Masters. If you are
one of the loaf-around kind you'd better call for your time to-night.
If there's anything for you to do, go do it. Don't wait for Trevors.
He's gone. Yes, for good. You can report to me here the first thing
in the morning. Now send me Crowdy."

"He's down in the hospital and the hospital phone is out of order."

"And you're an electrician, hanging around for orders! That's your
first job. Send the first man you can get your hands on to tell Crowdy
I say not to touch one of those calves with the lung-worm. And not to
do anything else but get ready to talk with me. I'll be down in half
an hour."

She clicked up the receiver, drank a cup of lukewarm coffee, noting
subconsciously that Jose must have had a fire ready against the time of
her awakening, and again consulted the files before her. Then again
she used the telephone, ringing the Lower End office. This time it was
another voice answering her.

"Where's Masters?" she asked.

"Gone d