"If you've got any money or can raise any," said Terry crisply, "I'm offering you a good proposition. The same Blenham is after. The ranch is worth a whole lot better than twenty thousand dollars. My proposition is-- But can you raise eight thousand?" Steve regarded her a moment speculatively. Then, quite after the way of Steve Packard, he slipped his hand into his shirt and brought out a sheaf of banknotes and tossed them to her across the table. "I'm not a bloodsucker," he said quietly. "Take what you like; I'll stake you to the wad." Terry looked, counted--and gasped. "Ten thousand!" she cried. "Good Lord, Steve Packard! Ten thousand--and you'd lend me----" "To pay off a mortgage to my grandfather, yes," he answered soberly, quite conscious of what he was doing and of its recklessness and, perhaps, idiocy. "And to beat Blenham." She jumped up and ran around the table to put her two hands on his shoulders and shake him. "You're a God-blessed brick, Steve Packard!" she cried ringingly. "But I'm not a bloodsucker, either. If you're a dead game sport-- Well, that's what I'd rather be than anything else you can put a name to. Lace your boots, get into a hat, shove that in your pocket." And she slipped the roll of bills into his hand. "By now dad and Blenham will be on the road to Red Creek; we'll beat them to it, have a lawyer and some papers all ready, and when they show up we'll just take dad out of Blenham's hands." "I don't quite get you," said Steve. "If you won't borrow the money----" "I'll make dad sell out to you for eight thousand; he pockets one thousand and with the other seven your money-grabbing, pestiferous old granddad is paid off. Then you and I frame a deal between us----" "Partners!" ejaculated Bill Royce. "Glory to be! Steve Packard an' Terry Temple pardners----" "Don't you see?" Terry was excitedly tugging at Steve's arm. "Come on; come alive. We're going to play freeze-out with Hell-Fire Packard and his right-hand bower, both. And we're going to keep dad from doing a fool thing. And we're going to-- Oh, come on, can't you?" Steve got up and stood looking down at her curiously. Then he laughed and turned away for his coat and hat. "Lead on; I'm trailing you," he said briefly. Bill Royce rubbed his hands and chuckled. "Even if I ain't got eyes," he mused, "there's some things I can see real clear." CHAPTER XVIII "IF HE KNOWS--DOES SHE?" There seemed no particular need for haste. And yet Terry ran eagerly to her car, and Steve hurried after her with long strides while the men down at the bunkhouse surmised and looked to Bill Royce for a measure of explanation. Steve was not beyond the age of enthusiasm; Terry was all atingle. Life was shaping itself to an adventure.