She turned and ran her eye over the crowd, and both the just and the unjust quailed before her. "And so you were drunk, were you, Mr. Atkins?" she inquired, fixing her gaze upon the deposed straw-boss; and Hardy Atkins shot a look at her which was both confession and appeal. "And you, Jack?" she continued severely. "Yes, ma'am," spoke up Happy Jack, upon whom the severity of her manner was lost. "I was drunk, all right." "Well, you don't need to be proud of it!" she observed cuttingly. "It's no distinction in this bunch. Brig, were you drunk, too?" "No, ma'am," responded Brigham promptly. "Oh, what's the use of talking?" scoffed Dixie, glancing at his swollen face and bloodshot eyes. "All the same, I wasn't!" denied Brigham boldly. "I reckon you'd look kind of bug-eyed if you'd been standin' guard all night!" "Well, what's the matter with your face then?" she demanded. "Did the ground rise up and hit you?" "No, but an old cow did, over in the shippin' chute!" And Brigham drew himself up and grinned defiantly. It was not often that he had a chance to assume this high moral pose, and he decided to make the most of it. "That's right," interposed Henry Lee, who so far had let his daughter do all the talking. "Brig and Bowles stood guard all night and brought up the remuda in the morning. I won't forget that, Brig," he added significantly. "I'm looking for men I can trust." "Well, good for you, Brig!" commented Dixie May, smiling with sudden approval; and at that the other suitors fell into a black rage of jealousy and distrust. There was silence for a while, and then Happy Jack spoke up. "Mr. Lee," he said, "I know I was drunk last night--my own fault, of course--but here's the proposition. You got to take on somebody to do yore work; what's the use of hirin' these town bums when you can git yore old hands back? That's the way we stand, and I hope you'll give us a chance." This was a long speech for Jack, and he wiped the sweat from his brow as he waited for the answer. The rest of the unemployed rumbled their acquiescence to the statement and watched for some sign of weakening; but Henry Lee did not change his frown. "I'm looking for men I can trust," he said at last. "These boys here stayed in camp and were on hand to help with the shipping. Maybe some of them ain't quite as good cowboys as you are, but I can depend on them not to turn my remuda loose the first night I leave 'em alone, and I'm going to make them top hands. You fellows get the top mounts and forty-five a month," he added, glancing briefly at Brig and the faithful few, most of whom were nesters boys, and married men working for a stake; "and I want some more just like you." "But how about us?" inquired Happy Jack after a silence. "I'll take on for a green hand, myse'f--forty dollars--and ride bronks, too. And I know that upper range like a book!" "Sure!" murmured the rest; and once more they waited on Henry Lee.