“Sure. I told dad it was no good. Got it for Christmas. If I bust it let me use yours.”

“Rig it up now your way. Nothing pleases any fisherman so much as his own ways…. Say, Marvie, did you meet my pardner, Nevada? He rode over that way this morning.”

“Didn’t meet no one,” replied the lad. “An’ you bet I had my eyes peeled.”

“Well, he was on the other side of the lake from you. Thought maybe he might have cut across round the dry lake bed.”

“Nevada? Was he goin’ to our ranch?” queried Marvie, with interest.

“Modoc thinks so, and I guess I do, too.”

“What for? I hear the cowboys talkin’ about you an’ Nevada. They like you both a heap, since you licked Setter. They’re more curious about Nevada, though. He’s a stranger. Why’d he go to dad’s ranch?”

“I’m not sure, Marvie, but I’m some worried,” replied Ben, looking the lad squarely in the eye. It was a handsome boyish face, with features enough like his sister’s to make Ben look and look with possession–taking gladness. Marvie struck him as being a bright youngster, longing for a life just like his and Nevada’s, at a most impressionable age, and perhaps not getting along well with his father. Ben sympathized with Marvie. Then it seemed to Ben that he was idealized by this lad. He felt a melancholy happiness. It brought him closer to Ina. Likewise it made him slow to judge how best to meet Marvie’s advances.

“Huh! I’ll bet you’re worried for fear Nevada will do worse to Setter than you did,” declared Marvie.

“Son, you’re not far wrong,” replied Ben, smiling at the boy’s acumen.

“Bill Sneed said he’d bet Nevada would never have throwed Setter’s gun away. He’d have throwed it on him…. Well, Ben, you needn’t worry about Setter gettin’ it to–day, or very soon, ’cause he went to Klamath to get the teeth you knocked out put back.”

“Say, I must have bunged Setter up some,” laughed Ben. “I was pretty mad. Just had sense enough to fight and not shoot.”

“Let’s talk of some one else. Setter makes me sick. I found out yesterday that his bein’ kind to me, givin’ me things, lendin’ me guns an’ horses, was just to get me out of the way.”

“Out of the way?” echoed Ben, with a sudden start.

“Sure. He’s after Ina,” declared the lad, vehemently nodding his head. “He’s got dad buffaloed, so the cowboys say, an’ now——”

“After Ina!” flashed Ben, suddenly on fire. “No, Marvie, not that—that——”

“Sure as you’re born,” said Marvie, interrupting in turn. “It’s dog–gone sickenin’. I wish I was bigger an’ older…. Ben, you needn’t look like you was at a funeral. Ina hates Setter. Hates him like my dog hates a skunk. It won’t make no difference what dad says or wants. Look what she did to McAdam. That dude stood in with dad an’ thought he was engaged to Ina. Was he? I should snigger not. Do you know what she did—when he got gay tryin’ to kiss her? Ma saw the whole thing. She told me, ’cause she didn’t ever want me to be like McAdam. What do you think of that, Ben?”