recovered. `A girl, huh?' he said. `That don't mean I gotta go. She'll need someone to manage things, I guess, knowin' nothin' about cattle.'
`I'm afraid you'll have no guess again,' Cullin said. `You see, the heiress happens to be the girl I told you was residing with Drait. If she wants help....'
This second blow shook the foreman to his very foundations. `That damned nester,' he exploded, after a stunned silence. `There's on'y one o' that name around here, thank God,' the other replied viciously. `An' he's one too many. By the way, I hear the stock he has in the valley came from the S P. What about it?'
`If they did, he stole 'em,' Gilman retorted instantly.
`A hundred head, all without brands?' This incredulously. `Ain't yore riders doin' anythin' for their pay?'
The foreman lifted his shoulders. `Shouldn't wonder if there's more. I'm short-handed--to keep down expenses--an' with the future o' the ranch in the air, I reckon none of us feels like overworkin'--you wouldn't yoreself.'
`Possibly, but you'll have some explainin' to do; Drait's no tenderfoot.'
`Me too; mebbe he'll have some to do first.'
`O' course, if you could prove he helped hisself to those cows,' Cullin said softly.
The eyes of the two men met, and the foreman knew that his story was not accepted; he also read the meaning behind Cullin's last remark.
`Have to consider if somethin' can't be done 'bout that,' he said. `If not, there's other ways.'
The rancher rose. `It is, o' course, entirely yore affair, but we shall miss you, Gilman.'
The foreman's sullen gaze watched him cross the open anddisappear among the trees. `Yeah, my affair,' he sneered. `You want him got rid of, an' I'm to do it for you. Mebbe I will, because it suits my hand too, but if I have to start killin', look to yoreself, Cullin, you bastard.'
Though he failed no divine the malignity he had left behind, the Big C man knew he had not earned any gratitude. Nevertheless, he was satisfied with the morning's work. It was perfectly plain to him that Gilman had been robbing the S P, and pretty certain that Drait already knew, or would soon discover the fact. The removal of the nester therefore became imperative if the foreman was to retain his post, or even his ill-gotten gains. But Cullin was not the type to be content with only one chance in a lottery, and his mind was casting about for a second. It did not take long to decide; Bardoe's animosity towards Drait almost equalled his own.
From where he was, the route to the 8 B skirted Shadow Valley, and he was only a short distance from nhe entrance when he saw a rider ahead, a slight figure, dressed in grey, which he instantly recognised. Smothering a whoop of exultation, he loped after and soon overtook her. Hat in hand, he ranged alongside.
`This is certainly my lucky day,' he smiled. `Didn't dream I'd have the pleasure o' seein' you again so soon. Do you often ride this way?'
She shook her head. `I am venturing outside the valley for the first time.'
`I hope it won't be the last.'
For some moments they paced in silence. Thrilled by the nearness of her, the man was content to look, noting the easy grace with which she rode, the delicate colour under the faint tan of her cheeks, the curling tendrils of hair straying from beneath her hat-brim. Mary's eyes, though less searching, had not been entirely idle. Though he wore the garb of the country, she had seen that it was of superior quality, the shirt and neckerchief of silk, and his face newly-shaven. She would have described him as well-dressed, without the flashiness of Beau Lamond. Presently he laughed.
`Why, I have forgotten to congratulate you.' He saw she did not comprehend. `Upon yore inheritance.' `Oh, that,' she replied, with a tiny frown. `Nothing is settled yet, and I'm sorry it is being talked about.'
`It isn't. Seale--who is also my lawyer--visited me last evening on business. He seemed very pleased about somethin' an' eventually admitted, in confidence, that it was because he is now in a position to clear up the Pavitt estate, havin' discovered the owner.'
`I would be much more grateful if he had found me three months ago,' the girl said, and there was an undercurrent in her tone which he could not guess at.
`I think you will have no more reason to complain on that score,' he assured her. `Seale is under obligation to me, an' I've made it plain that any unnecessary delay in your case will be an unfriendly act to myself.'
`That was very kind of you, Mister Cullin,' she said warmly. `Not a-tall, just fairness,' he replied, and then smiled. `What does Drait think about yore good fortune?'
`We haven't discussed it yet,' she answered. `I imagine that, like myself, he prefers to deal with facts.'
`You have known him long?'
'No,' she replied shortly, and he did not pursue the subject.
He offered no protest when she wished to return, but insisted on escorting her.
They parted at the spot where they had met, and the clasp of her hand made his blood burn. Holding it, he said: `I want you to nhink of me as a friend, one who will always be ready to help you in case of need.'
Without waiting for any response, he turned abruptly and rode away. For a moment she sat gazing after him, astonished and rather impressed--as he had meant her to be. He did not look back.
Riding slowly back to Shadow Valley, she vainly endeavoured to arrange her ideas about her late companion. Though he had clearly shown that he admired her, it had not been done with the crude and offensive familiarity of Lamond. She liked him, and yet....
The Big C man was in no doubt about his feelings--he wanted this woman and would have her, by fair means or foul. What she was to the nester he did not know, but should it prove an obstacle that was just too bad--for Drait. He rode on towards his destination, smiling grimly.
He was welcomed with some surprise and no great show of amiability, but was invited in and the customary bottle was produced.
`Well, Greg, you wouldn't come all this way 'less you wanted somethin',' Bardoe began. `Let's have it.'
`My dear Bull,' the visitor protested mildly, and Bardoe stiffened; Cullin, in a polite mood, was to be suspected. `The pleasure of seein' you ...'
`Take a good long look an' then gimme the real reason,' the other said sourly.
`What a doubtin' Thomas you are, Bull,' Cullin smiled. `But there was an item of news I fancied might interest you; the S P is changin' hands.'
The other's eyes narrowed. Was it a guess, or had something leaked out? `No,' he replied evenly. `The missin' heir has been discovered--Pavitt's grand-daughter.'
`A gal, after all, huh. How should that interest me?'
`Jack Gilman'll have to go.'
`Can't see why--she'll need a foreman.'
Will she? Nicholas Drait is at present takin' care of her,' Cullen said carelessly.
Bardoe's eyebrows climbed, his mouth opened ludicrously as this statement sank in. `Are you mad, or am I?' he asked.
`Probably both of us, but what I've told you is a cold fact.'
Bull digested this in frowning silence. The girl he had lost was actually the possessor of the S P ranch, and the man who had stolen her--as he put it--was holding her. The shock was a staggering one. If only he--but that would not bear thinking of. Cullin was astonished at the effect of his news; Bull could not be so concerned about the foreman's future.
`It's tough luck on Gilman,' he remarked.
`To hell with Gilman,' Bardoe retorted. `It's tough on me.' `Afraid I don't get you.'
`Listen,' Bull growled. `When Drait tried to bump me off that time up on Table Mesa, I had a gal ridin' behind me. I'd picked her up less'n an hour earlier, fair lost an' pretty well all in. Said she'd stampeded from the place she was workin' an' that she'd no folks an' nowhere to go. I offered her a job as housekeeper at the 8 B, an' she agreed. It warn't no hardship to look at her--young an' fresh, which is how I like 'em.' He leered at his listener. `You know what happened, Drait did a pore job but knocked me out. He took the gal--they were together when my fellas catched him, an' if it hadn't bin for them two strangers--helI burn their bones--she'd 'a' bin fetched back to me. I want her, which is somethin' you wouldn't understand, an' I mean to have her, 'specially now; the S P would suit me fine.'
It was a tribute to Cullin's faculty of self-control that he was able to present a blank face during this brutal admission. But he had come to find a tool, and if it was keener and more dangerous than he had looked for, so
