Benny growled an answer but did not take up the quarrel. He knew Carson well enough to know that there was no man living readier for a fight or abler to conduct his own part of it. Carson, smaller than Benny, was wiry, quick-footed, hard-eyed. There was something about him that caused a man of Benny's sort to stop and think. "_Que hay_, Bud?" called a voice, and old Jose, his face shining with his joy--Bud was certain that Judith had actually kissed the leathery cheek and wondered how she could do it!--came down the knoll. "_La senorita_ wants you!" "Haw!" gurgled Bandy O'Neil facetiously. "It's your manly beauty, Bud! You ol' son-of-a-gun of a lady-killer!" Bud Lee swung about upon his heel to glare at Bandy. But suddenly conscious of a flush creeping up hotly under his tan, he turned his back and strode away to the house. Bandy's "haw, haw!" followed him. Lee's face was flaming when he entered the office. "What do you want with me?" he said shortly, angered at Bandy, Judith Sanford and himself. "Bow, wow!" retorted Judith, looking up from Trevors's table. "Whose dog art thou? Do you want me to think you are as fierce as you look?" "You sent for me?" he said coolly. She looked up at him critically. "What's come over you, Lee? I took you for a cool head--Heaven knows I need a few cool heads around me right now!--and here you show up with red in your eye, barking at me." "Let's pass up what I look like," said Lee stiffly. "What can I do for you. Miss Sanford?" "Hm," said Judith. "On your high horse, are you? All right, stay there. What I want is some information. How long have you been on the Blue Lake pay-roll?" "A little over six months," he answered colorlessly. "_Over_ six months?" A quick look of interest came into her eyes. "Trevors hired you? Or dad?" "Your father." "Then"--and a sudden, swift smile came for the first time that morning into the girl's eyes--"you're square! Thank God for one man to be sure of." She had risen with a quick impetuosity and put out her hand. Lee took it into his own, and felt it shut hard, like a man's. "Just how do you know I'm square?" he asked slowly. "Dad was human," she replied softly. "He made some mistakes. But he never made a mistake in a horse foreman yet. He has said to me a dozen times: 'Judy, watch the way a man treats his horse if you want to size him up! And never put your horses into the care of a man who isn't white, clean through.' Dad knew, Bud Lee!" Lee made no answer. For a little Judith, back at the long table and looking strangely small in the big, bare room before this massive piece of furniture, stared into vacancy with reminiscent eyes. Then, with a little shrug of her shoulders, she turned again to the tall foreman. "Why did you tell Trevors this morning that you were going to quit work?" she asked with abrupt directness.