“And I say again I am glad of it.” He retained his jesting tone, though his mood was serious. “But if you marry me you are going to marry bad luck, for it seems that my name is Davison. You know the rhyme: “‘To change the name and not the letter, Is to change for worse and not for better.’” “You insist on joking about it. You know that Davison was not my father’s name, but only the name I took when Uncle Philip adopted me.” “And that will break the bad luck spell!” “Don’t you think it will?” “I think it will; I know it will!” he declared. “I came to see you about something, as well as to congratulate you and sympathize with you.” “I tried to see you last night and failed.” “Yes, I know. I heard about it this morning. I wish I could have seen you last night, but it is as well this morning. What I want to ask you is if you intend to vote against the cattlemen to-day?” The cheery light died out of his eyes. “I have thought it over, and have talked with Mrs. Dudley, and it seems to me it is your duty to consider the matter very carefully now that you know your relationship to Uncle Philip.” A conservative by nature, and unconsciously influenced by the atmosphere of the Davison home, Lucy Davison had begun to fear that Justin was in the wrong. From that there was but a step to the conclusion that it was her duty to tell him so. She did not dream that she was but a pawn in the game which was being played by Sibyl Dudley. Justin looked into the earnest brown eyes, and his voice was grave. “If any one in the world could make me vote against my opinion it would be you. I’m not going to argue with you, but let me say just this. If I vote with the cattlemen, or refuse to vote at all, it will place me in the position of sustaining them in a rebellious defiance of the national government, in addition to upholding the unsheltered range, a question on which perhaps we could not agree. But the fences which they maintain on government lands are so clearly illegal that the government has in some instances ordered them down. The cattlemen hope by sending a senator to Washington to have that order rescinded and the entire matter dropped. They have fenced untaken public lands, and lands which settlers occupy, or wish to occupy, and they want to continue this without interruption from Washington.” “You said you didn’t intend to argue!” “I do not intend to argue. I’m simply going to ask if you think I would be justified in using my vote, or withholding it, to continue a practice that is in defiance of the orders of the land department, even to please my own father?” “That order is not, as I understand, a legal enactment, and it might be changed,” she urged. “It will be changed, no doubt, if the cattlemen win; but should it be changed, or withdrawn?” “It seems to me that the settlers are doing well enough, and those fences aren’t injuring anybody.” He was silent a moment, thinking.