Sunset comes early in the foothills in November, and it was dark by the time the girls reached home. As Harry was opening the big gate at the foot of the lane, Isita exclaimed:  
"There's a light at the house!"
 
"O goody! Then Rob is here." Harry sent a halloo to give word of her arrival. "You go right inside, Isita," she said when they reached the garden gate, "and I'll take the team to the barn."
 
As she passed the back yard she saw a figure moving there in the dark.
 
"So you got here first?" she called gayly.
 
"Time some one was gettin' here," Garnett's voice answered unexpectedly from the hay that he was forking out to the impatient herd.
 
"Yes. I thought I left you in charge." Rob had come up and was speaking with assumed sternness. "I'd pretty near decided you'd left the country with the Bianes."
 
"How on earth did you know they'd gone?"
 
"As we were coming in we met the sheriff going out. He'd been over there with half a dozen warrants for the old man and Joe. Seems they've been stealing sheep and cattle for a good while. That's where our stock went, of course. Garnett told me about finding[Pg 284] the hides. Fine neighbors, weren't they? Well, I'm glad we're rid of them."
 
"Rob," Harry began and stopped. It was hard to tell him. "Rob, they didn't all go. Isita is here."
 
"Isita here! Well, of all things! Where is she?"
 
"Up at the house. I wanted to explain to you before you saw her. She's here to stay, you see. I ought not to have kept her without asking you, but there was no time. And it seemed so dreadful to leave her with that father. I know I'm adding another burden to you, but——"
 
"Yes, it's terrible. I know she'll ruin us; big strapping creature like that. She'll eat as much as two cow-punchers. I'll harness right up again and ship her on the next train."
 
Harry was relieved that he took it so lightly, but she was still more relieved by the new life in his voice.
 
"Bobby! What is it? You've had good luck?" she said as they started toward the barn. "You sold my herd." She felt an immense relief and at the same time her heart sank at having to let them go. "Who took them? Did you get enough to pay Ludlum?"
 
"A thousand." Bob ignored the first question.
 
"A thousand! But we'll need more than that."
 
"Of course, I know. But haven't I been making wages haying and harvesting, besides what I had in the bank?"
 
"But you'll need that and more, too, for hay. Did you get hay?"
 
[Pg 285]
 
"A hundred tons of the finest, and we're going there to feed."
 
"O Bobby!" she could not go on. She leaned against the end of the stall and stared after him as he poured oats into the mangers for the horses. No matter what went wrong, he always found a way out and pulled her out, too. "If it weren't for you," she began.
 
"Of course, I know. It's an endless tug of war between us to see which one can get along without the other."
 
"Say!" cried Garnett, coming across the stable yard toward them. "Can't you folks sandwich those argyments in between the supper food? Little lady up at the house says she has boiled water enough to scald a hog and yet supper ain't real ready neither. Says she's waitin' on the boss for orders."
 
"Never mind. When I went off yesterday I left things so that five minutes with a frying pan would finish them."
 
It was a very little more than that before the food was sizzling. The two girls were busy setting the table, when heavy steps thumped across the porch, and some one knocked sharply.
 
"Come in!" Rob called and moved toward the door, while the three others watched. Every one gave a start of surprise as it was shoved open from without and Ludlum faced them.
 
Red-faced and scowling with fatigue and annoyance, with his eyes gleaming maliciously upon the cheery[Pg 286] scene before him, he stood against the blackness of the night like a messenger of evil.
 
"Come in, won't you?" Harry said politely. "Sit down." With a mutter the stockman dropped heavily into the nearest chair, took off his hat and mopped his face.
 
"Dusty riding round here now," said Rob.
 
"Yep. We need rain."
 
"I hope it holds off until we've pulled out of here."
 
"What's that? You're not wintering here? Haven't sold out, have you?" Chagrin was in Ludlum's face and voice as he glanced from Rob to Harry.
 
"Oh, no," Rob replied, with a smile. "We couldn't get hay enough up here to carry us through, that's all."
 
"It'll be different next year," Harry said with a note of triumph in her tone.
 
"Different, eh?" Ludlum sneered. "Because you've got the herd law through, you think you're fixed. I daresay that's the argyment you used to push the thing; told the rest of these rim-rock squatters that, if it wasn't for that confounded 'millionaire cattle trust' that was stealin' the grazing, you'd all get to be millionaires yourselves in no time."
 
"We told 'em it was the only thing to do to keep from being busted up and driven out entirely by fellows like you and Joyce," said Rob.
 
"And you think that because you ain't gettin' all you want it gives you the right to drive us out; hog all the free range yourselves. You're kinda mean, too, ain't you?"
 
[Pg 287]
 
"If you hadn't been so grasping in the first place," said Harry, "we shouldn't have had to fight you. We've taken only what we deserve to have."
 
"And I suppose you think you're going to keep it!" Ludlum sneered. "Why, my little lady, do you think your herd law is going to keep us stockmen, with thousands of critters to feed, out of these hills? Not much. We've grazed here long before you ever come in, and we'll be grazing long after you've dropped back where you come from. You think you can keep tabs on the stock that comes in here! Why, you couldn't begin to. How'll you know whether there's herders with 'em or not?"
 
"We'll know whether your cattle bother us," Rob warned him; "and if they do break in and spoil our crops, it's you that pay the damages now, not us fellows who have to pay you for your bloated critters. You don't get hurt, you know, unless you break the law. You big fellows are trying to push us off the earth. Maybe this'll show you that you don't own it all yet."
 
"And I guess," said Ludlum, "the only way to teach you smart Alecks that you can't run everything is to clean you out of this country right now."
 
"Yes?"
 
"Yes!" Ludlum shouted, pounding the table with a knotted fist "And according to that idea I've decided not to extend your time on them cattle. You've showed you're a tender-foot at the business, you and the girl there losin' stock right along. You're a joke, and there ain't room for jokes in the beef business. So you[Pg 288] just take your little bunch of stuff and run on. The time on your mortgage expires next Monday, December first, and it'll be foreclosed to the minute. See?" He grinned with savage satisfaction.
 
"Foreclosed?" Rob said calmly. "Of course you mean unless we can pay back your loan."
 
"Oh, certainly," Ludlum replied with savage irony, "if you can pay me that thousand——"
 
"One thousand one hundred and fifty-five dollars," Rob said. "I intended to send you a check for the amount as soon as we got to town, but I can give it to you right now. Saves me a stamp, too."
 
Without glancing at Ludlum, who, smothering in his astonishment and fury, stared motionless, Rob pulled his check book from his hip pocket and wrote the check. He laid it on the table before the stockman.
 
"Now if you will write a receipt, which Mr. Garnett will witness, everything will be straight between us. You can send me a discharge of the mortgage when you get back to town." Ludlum bent over the check, looked at it hard and muttered under his breath. When Harry silently handed him the pen he took it with a scowl and wrote a receipt. Then he pocketed the check, picked up his hat, glared venomously at the four who were watching him and without another word flung himself through the doorway and slammed the door after him.
 
"It's mighty good to know, just the same, that you can't make us suffer any longer," Rob said, with a deep bow toward the door.
 
[Pg 289]
 
"I kind of thought a while back there he wasn't going to trouble nobody any more," Garnett said, with a sigh, of relief; "he acted like he'd swallered the torpedo he meant for us, and it wasn't agreein' so well."
 
"Our supper won't agree with us, either, if it sits on the stove any longer," said Harry. "And now you can tell me all about where we're going this winter and who bought the cattle. Was it a regular stock buyer or a rancher?"
 
"A rancher."
 
"And where did you find, the hay? At the ends of the earth, I suppose."
 
"No. Not so far out. Same fellow that is going to take the cattle sold me the hay. He'll take part pay in work; I'm going to feed the whole outfit together."
 
"That sounds pretty fine. Is there a shack near by where we can live?"
 
"Oh, sort of a shack!" Rob admitted reluctantly, while Garnett threw his head back and shook with soundless laughter.
 
"What's the matter?" Harry inquired. "Is there a house there or not, Garnett?"
 
"Sure. Didn't he tell you?"
 
"I'll bet it's nothing but a barn," Harry declared, whereat both boys tittered again. "If I had time I'd write down to the man and find out what sort of house he's giving us," she added. "By the way, you h............