at though
the man had been taken completely by surprise he had given no sign of
being startled, but had answered a sharp summons with a cool, quiet
voice. So, summing it up, here was one to be hated and watched.

"What are you doing on my land, Blenham?" asked Steve sharply. "And
where are you driving those steers?"

Blenham eased himself in his saddle, drew his broad hat lower over his
eyes; thus he partly hid the patch which he had worn since he came from
the doctor's hands.

"I ain't on your land any more," he returned. "An' as for them
steers--what's it to you, anyhow?"

Open defiance was one thing Steve had not looked for.

"Looking for more trouble yet, Blenham?" he asked briefly.

Blenham shrugged.

"I'm tendin' to business," he said slowly. "No, I'm not lookin' for
trouble--yet. Since you want to know, I'm hazin' them cow-brutes the
shortes' way off'n Number Ten an' on to the North Trail. I'm puttin'
'em on the trot to the Big Bend ranch where they happen to belong."

Steve lifted his brows, for the moment wondering. Blenham was not
waiting for pitch dark to move these steers; he manifested no alarm at
being discovered; now he calmly admitted that he was driving them to
old man Packard's ranch where they belonged. It was possible that he
was right.

In the few weeks that he had been back Steve had not had the time to
know every head on his wide-scattered acreage; as the steers had
trotted through the shadows and into the open his eyes had been less
for them than for the coming of Blenham and he was not sure of the
brands.

He felt that Terry's eyes, as Terry sat very still on her log, were
steadily upon him.

"Blenham," he said curtly, "I don't know whose cattle those are. But I
do know this much: If they are mine I am going to have them back; if
they are not mine I am going to have them back just the same."

"How do you make that out?" demanded Blenham.

"I make out that neither you nor any other man has any business driving
stock off my range without consulting me first."

"They're Big Bend cows," muttered Blenham. "The ol' man's orders----"

"Curse the old man's orders!" Steve's voice rang out angrily. "If he
can't be decent to me, can't he at least let me alone? Need he send
you here to do business with me? If you want orders, Blenham, you just
take these from me: Ride back to the old man on Big Bend ranch and tell
him that what stock is on my ranch I keep here until he can pr