“There!” said Claude, as he lifted his face from the towel and gazed after the two men who were walking into the dining-room. “I have given them something to chew on. I don’t know whether they believe that Uncle Preston is guilty of meanness or not—I rather think, from the expression of their faces, that they do not; but it will show them what I think, and perhaps it will amount to something.”

Thompson, the foreman, was the one who objected to Mr. Preston hiring the men, and he showed it so plainly that it is a wonder the men did not see it. During the week following he would hardly pay any attention to them except to give them their orders, and he got through with that as soon as possible. At the end of that time he found opportunity to speak to Mr. Preston privately.

Page 208

“So you have hired those two men, have you?” said he.

“I have, and I didn’t think I could do any better,” said his employer.

“I should not raise a bit of fault with them if they were stock-herders,” said Thompson, “but I know they are not. When you go down to the fort make inquiries about them, and you will find that they have Indian wives. These men are making forty-five dollars a month, and their wives are getting their provisions for nothing.”

“Oh, I guess you are mistaken. These men must have had some object in coming here.”

“Yes, they have. Where do you keep the key to your safe?”

“In my pocket, of course.”

“Then it is all right. The cook will be here while you are around the house, and it will be dangerous for anybody to try to get it. You will be around with me or with Carl——”

“And Claude, too,” interrupted Mr. Preston.

Page 209

“Well, the least said about Claude the better,” said Thompson.

“Why, you don’t suspect Claude of having designs on that safe, do you?” said Mr. Preston in surprise.

“I don’t suspect anything; but you just take my advice and keep your eyes on that safe. You’ve got most too much money in there.”

“I declare this beats me! Things have come to a pretty pass when a man cannot keep in his possession what money he needs.”

“I am only just telling you what I believe,” said Thompson. “I have had an eye on that man Claude for a long time. When you pay off the hands he is the last one in your office, and I expect he takes particular notice of where you put the key.”

“Thompson,” said Mr. Preston, suddenly putting his hand into his pocket, “do me the favor to keep this key. I am not as strong as I used to be——”

“I know you are not,” said the foreman sadly. “Time was when you would have gloried to have somebody come here with the intention of walking off with the contents of Page 210 that safe, but it ain’t so now. I will take the key, and if anybody gets it, it will be when I am laid out.”

Thompson rode off to attend to his duties, feeling much better than he did when he began his conversation with his employer. He was hale and strong, a dead shot, as utterly devoid of fear as it is possible for a man to be, and it would be a dangerous piece of business for one to attempt to put his hand onto that key while it was in his possession.

“I feel all right now,” said Thompson, who drew a long breath of relief. “I have been worrying about that key ever since Claude has been here, but now I would like to see him get it. Many a time, before Claude came here, I have seen Mr. Preston go off and leave the key to that safe sticking in the lock for weeks at a time, and nobody ever thought of going near it. He has been a little cautious about that ever since I spoke to him concerning it. I’ll take the cook into my confidence. He is a sure shot, keeps his revolvers hung up where he can put his hands on them at an instant’s Page 211 warning, and with him watching in the house and me watching outside we have the dead wood on them.”

The conversation had a very different effect upon Mr. Preston. He became suspicious of everybody. He watched his men and Claude continually; and, though they were always respectful in their manner toward him, he felt that there was something behind it all. One reason was because Claude had not yet talked with the men. He was waiting for them to “show their hands,” and that came about right speedily. When the fall round-up came, and the young cattle had to be branded, it chanced that Claude and the two men were together during the best part of the day. As long as Thompson was with them they went about their work in earnest; but when the foreman went away, Harding, who seemed to have been waiting for this opportunity, entered upon the subject at once. He must have known just how the matter was coming out, or he would have been a little more cautious about it.

“You say your uncle treats all his hands Page 212 mean,” said he, addressing himself to Claude. “I think he treats us all right.”

“No doubt he does you,” replied Claude, “but he is only waiting for an opportunity to turn loose on you. If we should let these steers get away from us and start toward the entrance of the valley, then you would see what kind of a man uncle is.”

“Well, I don’t know as I blame him any for that,” said Harding. “There are lots of cattle on the prairie for them to mingle with.”

“You ought to be in my place once,” said Claude. “You would get a blessing every night for not doing your work up right. I tell you, I am getting sick of it.”

“Why don’t you quit him?”

“Because I haven’t any other place to go. Forty-five dollars a month is better than nothing.”

“You say he has lots of money in that safe?” continued Harding, coming down to the point at once.

“Oceans of it.”

“Do you know where he keeps the key?”

“I do. He has it in his pocket; but then Page 213 he takes his clothes off every night and throws them over a chair.”

“Do you suppose you could work your way in there at night and get it? You would have to be careful and not wake him up.”

“Oh, yes, I could do it. Uncle sleeps like a log.”

Harding went off at a lope to catch a steer that objected to being rounded up, and when he came ba............