crook, I hope."

"That's something, if it ain't everything," snorted the old man as,
withdrawing his hand, he found and lighted a long stogie. "Blenham
tells me you fired him las' night?"

Young Packard nodded, watching his grandfather's face for the first
sign of opposition. But just now the old man's face told nothing.

"Thinking of runnin' the outfit yourself, Stephen?" came the next
question quietly.

"Yes. I had intended looking in on you in a day or so to talk matters
over. I understand that my father left everything to me and that it is
pretty heavily mortgaged to you."

"Uhuh. I let Phil have a right smart bit of money on Number Ten firs'
an' las', my boy. Don't want to pay it off this mornin', do you?"

Steve laughed.

"I'm broke, Grandy," he said lightly, unconsciously adopting the old
title for the man who had made him love him and hate him a score of
times. "My working capital, estimated last night, runs about
seventy-five dollars. That wouldn't quite turn the trick, would it?"

The old man's eyes narrowed.

"You mean that seventy-five dollars is all you've got to show for
twelve years?" he asked sharply.

Again, hardly understanding why, Steve flushed. Was a man to be
ashamed that he had not amassed wealth, especially when there had never
been in him the sustained desire for gold? He owed no man a cent, he
made his own way, he asked no favors--and yet there was a glint of
defiance in his eye, a hint of defiance in his tone, when he replied
briefly.

"That's all. I haven't measured life in dollars and cents."

"Then you've missed a damn' good measure for it, my son! I ain't
sayin' it's the only one, but it'll do firs' class. But you needn't
get scared I've gone into the preaching business. . . . An' with that
seventy-five dollars you're startin' out to run a big cow outfit like
this, are you?"

There was a gleam of mockery in the clear blue eyes which Steve gave no
sign of seeing.

"I've got a big job on my hands and I know it," he said quietly. "But
I'm going to see it through."

"There's no question about the size of the job! It's life-size, man's
size--Number Ten size, if you want to put it that way. It wants a real
man to shove it across. Know just how much you're mortgaged for?"

"No. I was going to ask you."

"Close to fifty thousan' dollars, countin' back interest, unpaid.
More'n you ever saw in a day, I reckon."

Steve shrugged. This to hide his first incl