"Damn the girl!" he muttered angrily.

Terry, sitting on the table, grew very still, ceased the swinging of
her feet, and turned to peek cautiously out at him from the kitchen
window. Her look was utterly joyous.

"Men are always horrid creatures before they've had their breakfasts,"
she informed the stillness about her complacently.

CHAPTER V

HOW STEVE PACKARD CAME HOME

Had Steve Packard ridden straightway back to Ranch Number Ten he would
have arrived at the ranch headquarters long before noon. But, once out
in the still dawn, he rode slowly. His mind, when he could detach it
from that irritating Terry Pert, was given over to a searching
consideration of those conditions which were beginning to dawn on him.

It was clear that his destiny was offering him a new trail to blaze,
one which drew him on with its lure, tempting him with its vague
promises. There was nothing to cause surprise in the fact that the
ranch was his to have and to hold if he had the skill and the will for
the job; nor yet in the other fact that the outfit was mortgaged to his
grandfather; nor, again, was it to be wondered at that the old man was
already acting as actual owner. For never had the oldest Packard had
any use for the subtleties and niceties and confusing technicalities of
the law. It was his way to see clearly what he wanted, to make up his
mind definitely as to a desired result, and then to go after it the
shortest way. And that way had never led yet through the law-courts.

These matters were clear. But as he dwelt upon them they were made
complex by other considerations hingeing upon him. Most of all he had
to take stock of what lay in his own mind and soul, of all that dwelt
behind his present purpose.

Riding back to Ranch Number Ten, saying, "It is mine and I mean to have
it," was simple enough. But for him actually to commit himself to the
line of action which this step would entail would very obviously
connote a distinct departure from the familiar, aimless,
responsibility-free career of Steve Packard.

If he once sat into the game he'd want to stick for a showdown; if he
started out now bucking old man Packard, he would perhaps wind up in
the scrap-heap. It was just as well to think things over before he
plunged in--which set him musing upon Terry again.

Swerving from yesterday's path, he followed a new trail leading about
the edge of the Temple ranch and into the southeastern borders of Ranch