"By the way," she said when the man with the voice which had sounded so boyish in her ears answered again, "who are you?" "Ed Masters," he told her. "Electrician, you know." A glance at the pay-roll in front of her showed that Edward Masters, general electrician, was a new man and was drawing eighty-five dollars monthly. "What are you doing this afternoon?" she demanded sharply--"just hanging around the office? Is that the way you earn your eighty-five dollars?" "Not always. But Trevors told me to be on hand to-day to take some orders." "What work?" "Don't know," he said frankly. "He didn't say." "Well," said Judith, "I'll tell you one thing, Ed Masters. If you are one of the loaf-around kind you'd better call for your time to-night. If there's anything for you to do, go do it. Don't wait for Trevors. He's gone. Yes, for good. You can report to me here the first thing in the morning. Now send me Crowdy." "He's down in the hospital and the hospital phone is out of order." "And you're an electrician, hanging around for orders! That's your first job. Send the first man you can get your hands on to tell Crowdy I say not to touch one of those calves with the lung-worm. And not to do anything else but get ready to talk with me. I'll be down in half an hour." She clicked up the receiver, drank a cup of lukewarm coffee, noting subconsciously that Jose must have had a fire ready against the time of her awakening, and again consulted the files before her. Then again she used the telephone, ringing the Lower End office. This time it was another voice answering her. "Where's Masters?" she asked. "Gone down to the cow hospital," was the answer. "Where's Johnson, the irrigation foreman?" "Out in the south fields." "And Dennings?" "Went to look the olives over." "Send out for both of them. I'm coming right down as fast as a horse will carry me and I want to talk with them. Wait a minute--I'll tell you when I'm through with you. Who are you, anyway?" "Williams, the ranch carpenter." "What _are_ you doing to-day? Repairs needed at the office where you are?" "No. You see----" "You bet I see!" she cried warmly. "The first thing I see is that I've got more men on this job than I need. If there's no work for you to do, call tonight for your time. If you've got anything to do, go do it." She clicked off again, waited a brief second and rang three for the dairy. After she had rung several times and got no answer, she murmured to herself: "There's some one too busy on the ranch to be just hanging round after all, it seems." And she went out to Jose and the waiting horse.