ps he was to have been one of their
corporation when one was formed. Now that Wayne owned the Bar L-M and
the water, the logical thing for them to do was to come to him. They
had brought Garth into the circle of their endeavour; they had ignored
Shandon. A little hurt at the obvious significance of this Shandon
shrugged his shoulders and resolved that when the first word was spoken
it would not be by himself.

And soon he came close to forgetting it. The incentive to bestir
himself had at last come into his life and he was not loitering.
Little by little, through long talks with Garth, with Big Bill and
other men of his outfit, he came to have a grasp upon the work which
should have been his a year before, and an interest in it. Only now
for the first time did he take the trouble to learn the real meaning of
resources and liabilities; to estimate profit and loss; to speculate
upon success in the business which he found rather larger than he had
suspected. He called a round-up to learn to the head how many steers
and cows and calves carried the Bar L-M brand. He brought a quick look
of surprise that was close to suspicion into Garth's eyes by asking
casually just what sums had been taken in during the last year by sales
of beef, how the money had been reinvested, if there was a surplus in
the bank. He went into the matter of the wages of all of the men, and
learned that Garth himself was drawing the same salary he had drawn
under Arthur.

"Oh, I'm not thinking that you're holding out on me," he laughed at
Garth's expression. "I've just begun thinking that it's about time I'm
doing part of my own work. So everything you got out of the sales last
year you slapped back into the business, buying more cattle?"

"I sent you four thousand, you remember," Garth reminded him.

"You don't quite get me, Garth. What's left of that four thousand
wouldn't buy a sack of tobacco. We haven't banked any cash, have we?"

Even now Garth hesitated, Garth's way. Then he answered.

"Arthur left fifteen hundred in the bank. I haven't touched that, of
course. If you haven't--"

"I didn't know it was there," laughed Wayne. "When I pulled out and
gave you my power of attorney I let everything slide off my shoulders
on to yours. Is that all?"

"I banked pretty heavily from sales," Garth went on. "Under my own
name, as it saved trouble and I didn't know when you'd show up. I drew
out again, for the men's wages, for a few