to throw him off the ranch. I would of taken a fall out of him
for that, but Miss Jordan stepped in and kept me away from him.

"Afterwards I had a talk with her. She begged me not to go after
Perris because he would fight and that meant a killing. I told her I
had to do what I'd said I'd do. Then she busted out and told me that
she loved Perris. Seemed to think that would keep me from going after
Perris. She might of knowed that it was the very thing that would
make me hit the trail. I'm not going to stand by and see a skunk like
Perris run away with your girl while you ain't on the ranch.

"I've just given orders to a couple of the boys to see that she don't
get a horse to go out to Perris. Tomorrow or the next day I'll settle
his hash.

"This letter may make you think that you'd better come back to the
ranch. But take my advice and stay off. I can handle this thing better
while you're away. If you're here you'll have to listen to a lot of
begging and crying. Come back in a week and everything will be cleared
up.

"Take it easy and don't worry none. I'm doing my best for you and your
daughter, even if she don't know it.

"Sincerely,

"LEW HERVEY."

This letter, when completed, he surveyed with considerable
complacence. If ever a man were being bound to another by chains of
inseparable gratitude, Oliver Jordan was he! Indeed, the whole affair
was working out so smoothly, so perfectly, that Hervey felt the thrill
of an artist sketching a large and harmonious composition. In the
first place, Red Jim Perris, whom he hated with unutterable fervor
because the younger man filled him with dread, would be turned, as
Hervey expressed it, "into buzzard food." And Hervey would be praised
for the act! Oliver Jordan, owing the preservation of his daughter
from a luckless marriage to the vigilance of his foreman, could
never regret the life-contract which he had drawn up. No doubt that
contract, as it stood, could never hold water in the law. But Jordan's
gratitude would make it proof. Last of all, and best of all, when
Perris was disposed of, Marianne would never be able to remain on the
ranch. She would go to forget her sorrow among her school friends in
the East. And Hervey, undisputed lord and master of the ranch, could
bleed it white in half a dozen years and leave it a mere husk,
overladen with mortgages.

No wonder a song was in the heart of the foreman as he sealed the
letter. He gave the message to Slim, and adde