"Lot I care!" chuckled Judith. "I'll sic Grandma Brown on him again if he bothers me." "I'd rather have a wolverine after me than Charleton," John went on excitedly. "You both ought to be licked!" "Try it," suggested both the young people together. "I've a notion not to take you up to Mountain City and I wouldn't if--" Judith interrupted him. "You're not going to take me. I'm going with Doug." "O, no, you're not!" snarled John. "And I'm not going to quarrel with you," Judith went on. "I'm sick of men. I don't like the way you acted to me to-night. I told you if you broke that door down I wouldn't go with you, and I always keep my word. I'm not going to take money from Douglas, either. I'll borrow from Inez. And I don't want to hear another word from you about it." She put the spurs to Buster and was gone into the starlight. The men spurred after her, but she reached the home corral before they did. And John could storm only at the deeply perturbed Mary, for Doug and Judith went to bed, pulled the covers over their heads and were heard no more that night. The next morning, before breakfast, half of Lost Chief had called the Spencers on the telephone to tell them that Little Marion had a daughter. The dominant note in the reports was one of huge laughter. Judith was serene, and so was John. But the serenity was not to last. When she went out to the corral to look after Sioux she came back stormily. "Where's Sioux and Whoop-la?" she demanded of John, who was mending a spur strap. "Put away!" "Have you killed them?" "No. I'll produce them as soon as you agree to keep your promise to go to Mountain City with me." "I never promised. I intended to go with you, but I never promised." "Remember if we don't get started by to-morrow," roared John, "we can't get there in time." "I said I wouldn't go with you after last night, and now, I wouldn't go with you if you were the last man on earth." She rushed from the house, and Douglas followed her. "I'll help you hunt for them, Judith," he said. She turned to him, white to the lips. "We're not going to hunt for them. There are other Mountain City rodeos coming. If he thinks I'm going to make a joke of myself rushing round the neighborhood after my outfit, he's mistaken! I'm not a child. Don't bother me, Douglas; I'm going to Inez." She put Buster to a gallop and was off, the dust following her in a golden, whirling spiral. Douglas went into the house and stood before his father, face flushed, golden hair rumpled, soft shirt clinging to his big gaunt chest. "Dad, that's a rotten deal to put over Judith." John rose slowly to his full height and the two men looked levelly into each other's eyes. John's expression was curiously concentrated. He tapped Douglas on the arm.