The Land of Strong Men Part 59

"Jean is so practical!" sighed his wife. "Now I'd never have said anything like that to _you_. I'm glad that Braden didn't get the ranch.

Odious beast!" Angus chuckled. "Well, he _is_!"

"Easily! I never happened to think of that particular descriptive phrase, though."

"I don't want to hear _your_ descriptive phrases. He's a horrible man. I shudder when he looks at me. He--he seems to be thinking evil things about me--plotting--Oh, I don't know. Did you see his face when he saw that he would be overbidden? It turned white, and then _green_. Oh, you may laugh! I _saw_ it."

"It was a jolt for him. He had it working like an oiled lock up to then.

Some day I will play even with him."

"He didn't accomplish his end. He's beneath your notice."

"No man who tried to hand me what he did is beneath my notice," he said grimly. "Yes, I'll settle with him some day."

"I thought I might see your brother at the sale."

"No, he wouldn't go near it. I'll be glad when I can hand him over his share to do what he likes with."

"It's odd that I've never seen him. Why don't you make it up with him, Angus?"

Angus' mouth tightened grimly. "Make it up! Now, I'll tell you something, Faith, which you must never repeat, even to Jean: I believe he is in cahoots with Braden."

"Oh, surely not!" she cried, and when he told her the grounds of his belief she was unconvinced. "There's some mistake, Angus."

"It's not on my part. I'm through with him--except to give him his share. He shall have that, to the last cent. He shall not say I did not play fair with him."

"You would play fair with every one," she told him. "I know that."

His arm tightened for an instant by way of acknowledgment. But he found her words only just. To the best of his ability he had tried to play fair all his life. On that score he could not reproach himself at all.

They drove up to the ranch, and at the sound of wheels Jean ran out. She had been waiting, regretting that she had not accompanied them, anxious to know the worst and have it over.

"Well, dear!" said Faith tantalizingly.

"You know what. Who bought the ranch? Was it Braden?"

"No," Faith replied, "it was a young man named Chetwood."

"Wha-a-t!" cried Jean in tones which left no doubt of her utter amazement. "Oh, stop joking! This is serious."

"He bought it," Angus a.s.sured her.

"But--but he _couldn't_!" Jean exclaimed incredulously. "Angus, you know he couldn't. Why he's _broke_! He's working for you for _wages_."

"Just what the old sheriff said," Angus laughed. "But it's straight, Jean. He bid the ranch in for twenty-four thousand."

"But where did he get the money?"

"I don't know. But he had it."

"Then," Jean flashed, "I'll never speak to him again--never! To buy the ranch, your ranch, our ranch--at a sale! Oh, the miserable, contemptible--"

"Hi, hold on!" Angus interrupted. "You don't understand. He didn't buy it for himself; he bought it in for us--to save it. He's a white man, all right, Jean."

"I don't care what he bought the ranch for!" Jean cried. "And he's _not_ a white man. He's a sneak. He deceived me. He said his remittance had stopped. He let me make a fool of myself advising him to homestead and get a place of his own, and work hard, so that--so that--"

"So that you could be married!" Angus chuckled.

"Ye--yes," Jean confessed, and her brother roared. "Oh, you think it funny, do you? Well, _he_ won't. I never want to see him. I _won't_ see him."

"But, Jean dear, listen," Faith put in, for she saw that to Jean there was nothing humorous in the situation. The girl was deeply offended, bitterly angry.

"I don't want to listen," Jean snapped. "I don't want to be rude, Faith, but he--he _lied_ to me. He led me to believe that he was poor, that he hadn't a dollar. He was playing with me, amusing himself, laughing at me when I was--oh, I can't talk about it!"

"Oh, shucks, old girl!" said Angus. "You're going into the air about nothing. You ought to be glad he isn't broke."

"Ought I?" Jean retorted. "Well, I'm not. He wasn't straight with me, he wasn't fair. He talked about a little cottage, and wanted me to marry him right away, and--and--"

"And share his poverty," Angus grinned. "Weren't you game, sis?"

"Angus!" Faith warned. But Jean's cheeks flamed.

"No, I wasn't," she replied bitterly. "I told him he would have to make good first, if you want to know, not because I didn't love him, poor as I thought he was, but because I thought it would make him work in earnest. Can you understand that, Angus Mackay? Do you think, after telling him that, I'd marry him now that he has money? I'd rather _die_!

And--and I half believe I want to."

With which tragic ultimatum Miss Jean turned and fled. Angus gaped after her and at his wife.

"Well, of all darn fool girls--" he exclaimed.

"You don't understand. You made it worse."

"Why, what did I--"

"Never mind now. I'll talk to her after a while, but in her place I'd feel much the same. I only hope she will get over it."

"Of course she will. Rot! She fooled herself about Chetwood, same as I did. Go and make her behave sensibly."

"You don't know a blessed thing about girls," his wife told him.

"Well, I'll bet if you let the two of them get together they'll make it up. She'll go for him red-headed for five minutes, then it'll be over."

But Faith vetoed this simple plan. She saw that Jean's pride had been deeply hurt. When Chetwood appeared, later, he met the surprise of his young life. He did not see Jean. Faith took the matter into her own hands.

"But--but, hang it," he exclaimed when the situation was made clear to him, "it's all a beastly, rotten misunderstanding. I mean to say it's all wrong. Jean--why, bless the girl, I never dreamed of offending her."

"But you've done it. Do you mind answering one or two questions?"

"I'll tell you anything," Chetwood replied with fervor.

"Well--they may be impertinent. Have you much money? And is it yours, or--remittances?"