ear in the years to come? Can you give us back our home, our comfort,
our peace of mind?"

"No, I can't do this, but I can help you to do it all," the cattleman
made answer quietly.

He offered no defense, though he knew perfectly well none was needed.
He had no responsibility in the calamity that had befallen this family.
Pelton's wrong-doing had come home to those he loved, and he could
rightly blame nobody but himself. However much he might arraign those
who had been the agents of his fall, he knew in his heart that the
fault had been his own.

Norma Pelton, tensely self-repressed, spoke now. "How can you do this,
sir?"

"I can't do it so long as you hold me for an enemy, ma'am. I'm ready to
cry quits with your husband and try a new deal. If I injured him he
tried to even things up. Well, let's say things are squared and start
fresh. I've got a business proposition to make if you're willing to
listen to it."

"What sort of a proposition?"

"I'm running about twenty-five thousand sheep up in the hills. I've
just bought a ranch with a comfortable ranch-house on it for a kind of
central point. My winter feeding will all be done from it as a chief
place of distribution. Same with the shearing and shipping. I want a
good man to put in charge of my sheep as head manager, and I would be
willing to pay a proper salary. There ain't any reason why this
shouldn't work into a partnership if he makes good. With wool jumping,
as it's going to do in the next four years, the right kind of man can
make himself independent for life. My idea is to increase my holdings
right along, and let my manager in as a partner as soon as he shows he
is worth it. Now that ranch-house is a decent place. There's a pretty
good school, ma'am, for the children. The folks round that neighborhood
may not have any frills, but--"

"Are you offering Tom the place as manager?" she demanded, in amazement.

"That was my idea, ma'am. It's not what you been used to, o' course,
but if you're looking for a change I thought I'd speak of it," he said
diffidently.

She looked at him in a dumb surprise. She, too, in her heart knew that
this man was blameless. He had done his duty, and had nearly lost his
life for it at the hands of her husband. Now, he had come to lift them
out of the hideous nightmare into which they had fallen. He had come to
offer them peace and quiet and plenty in exchange for the future of
poverty and shame and despair which menaced th