“You called Setter rustler boss. Nevada, isn’t that just some more cowboy talk?”

“Shore, an’ this heah cowboy is talkin’ straight. Some day, Ben, if you live out the summer, you’ll have the fun of heahing me call Setter that to his damn lyin’ face.”

In the speech Nevada passed from jest to earnest.

“But you rode over to the new Blaine ranch?” went on Ben, hoping to worm at least something from this exasperating Nevadian.

“Ben, you’d shore make a great scout, figgerin’ things so correct.”

“What’d you go for?”

“We had a day off, didn’t we? An’ I had a fresh hoss. I wanted to look over our neighbors. I had a hunch aboot Hart Blaine, an’ as usual I was right. He meant to make that ranch the first of a string of ranches, includin’ Forlorn River, all the way to his holdin’s round Silver Meadow, an’ he’ll play hob doin’ it.”

“Who’d you see?” hurried Ben, irresistibly driven.

“Wal, Marvie Blaine for one. Met up with him out heah on the trail. Near talked my head off aboot fish an’ hosses. Nice kid, Ben. He shore thinks a heap of you.”

“Yes—who else?”

“Wal, I was lucky. Findin’ out Setter an’ Blaine were away, I scraped acquaintance with some of the hands. Cowboys all gone. Ben, what do you make of Blaine ridin’ over heah south of us, with chuck wagon an’ outfit?”

“Blaine is just branching out—grasping sounds better.”

“Ahuh. Wal, your cute little pardner didn’t talk to them hands for nothin’. Blaine took a wagon besides the chuck wagon, an’ it was full of tools—shovels, picks, axes, a plow an’ scraper, an’ some cans of giant powder.”

“Well! That means road work.”

“I’ll hit their trail to–morrow an’ see what he’s up to. It fussed me some, but after thinkin’ aboot it I come to the conclusion roads are shore goin’ to make our property twice as valuable.”

“That’s so. I forgot we owned four ranches…. Well, who else did you see?”

“Reckon nobody else…. Oh yes, I did, too. Saw your girl, Ina Blaine. I knowed her, Ben, quick as you could snap your quirt.”

“You saw her!” ejaculated Ben, in great excitement. “But not to speak to?”

“Shore did, a little bit. She was darned sweet to me. An’ if I wasn’t plumb crazy aboot Hettie I’d take Ina away from you. She’s as pretty as—as—oh, Lord! I never seen anyone or anything as pretty. No wonder you cain’t sleep or eat or rest or work, or even be decent to your pard. A girl plays hell with a man, doesn’t she?”

Ben stared in impotent agitation at his loquacious and imperturbable friend. Behind all Nevada said and did there hid inscrutable mystery. Ben had to content himself with what little grist he could grind from Nevada’s utterances. But recalling the past, and puzzling over former complex situations, he realized that Nevada’s motives, strange and obscure as they seemed at first, always turned out to be clear as crystal and pure as gold. Ben had to face the monumental truth that Nevada seemed to think only of him.