E-text prepared by Al Haines Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 18926-h.htm or 18926-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/9/2/18926/18926-h/18926-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/9/2/18926/18926-h.zip) JUDITH OF BLUE LAKE RANCH by JACKSON GREGORY Author of The Joyous Trouble Maker, Six Feet-Four, Etc. Illustrated by W. Herbert Dunton [Frontispiece: Judith's spurs answered him, and the bit . . . brought him about, whirling . . . bucking as only . . . a devil-hearted horse knows how to buck.] New York Grosset & Dunlap Publishers Copyright, 1919, by Charles Scribner's Sons Published March, 1919 Reprinted April, 1920 Copyright, 1917, 1918, by the Ridgeway Company CONTENTS CHAPTER I. BUD LEE WANTS TO KNOW II. JUDITH TAKES A HAND III. AND RIDES AN OUTLAW IV. JUDITH PUTS IT STRAIGHT V. THE BIGNESS OF THE VENTURE VI. YOUNG HAMPTON REGISTERS A PROTEST VII. THE HAPPENING IN SQUAW CREEK CANON VIII. RIFLE SHOTS FROM THE CLIFFS IX. THE OLD TRAIL X. UNDER FIRE XI. IN THE OLD CABIN XII. PARDNERS XIII. THE CAPTURE OF SHORTY XIV. SPRINGTIME AND A VISION XV. JUST A GIRL, AFTER ALL XVI. POKER FACE AND A WHITE PIGEON XVII. "ONCE A FOOL--ALWAYS A FOOL" XVIII. JUDITH TRIUMPHANT XIX. BUD LEE SEEKS CROOKED CHRIS QUINNION XX. THE FIGHT AT THE JAILBIRD XXI. BURNING MEMORY XXII. PLAYING THE GAME XXIII. THE WRATH OF POLLOCK HAMPTON XXIV. A SIGNAL-FIRE? XXV. THE TOOLS WHICH TREVORS USED XXVI. JUDITH'S PERIL XXVII. ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS XXVIII. BACON, KISSES, AND A CONFESSION XXIX. LEE AND OLD MAN CARSON RIDE TOGETHER XXX. THE FIGHT XXXI. YES, JUDITH WAS WAITING ILLUSTRATIONS Judith's spurs answered him, and the bit . . . brought him about, whirling . . . bucking as only . . . a devil-hearted horse knows how to buck . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ A lean, muscular hand fell lightly upon his shoulder and he was jerked back promptly Quinnion was down and shooting, with but ten steps . . . between him and the man whom he sought to kill "You'll find your work cut out for you." Judith of Blue Lake Ranch I BUD LEE WANTS TO KNOW Bud Lee, horse foreman of the Blue Lake Ranch, sat upon the gate of the home corral, builded a cigarette with slow brown fingers, and stared across the broken fields of the upper valley to the rosy glow above the pine-timbered ridge where the sun was coming up. His customary gravity was unusually pronounced. "If a man's got the hunch an egg is bad," he mused, "is that a real good and sufficient reason why he should go poking his finger inside the shell? I want to know!"