Buck did as he requested and then departed. Something else! That was the very feeling which had assailed him vaguely at times, that some deviltry which he couldn't understand was going on beneath the surface. As he made for the corral, a sudden possibility flashed into his mind. With her title so precarious, might not Mary Thorne be at the bottom of a systematic attempt to loot the Shoe-Bar of its movable value against the time of discovery? But when he met her face to face the idea vanished and he even felt ashamed of having considered it for a moment. Whatever crookedness was going on, this sweet-faced, clear-eyed girl was much more likely to be a victim than one of the perpetrators. The feeling was vastly strengthened when he had saddled up and they rode off together. "There's something I've been meaning to--to tell you," the girl said suddenly, breaking a brief silence. Buck glanced at her to find her eyes fixed on the ears of her horse and a faint flush staining her cheeks. "That room--" she went on determinedly, but with an evident effort. "A man's room-- You must have thought it strange. Indeed, I saw you thought it strange--" Again she paused, and in his turn Buck felt a sudden rush of embarrassment. "I didn't mean to--" he began awkwardly. "It just seemed funny to find a regular man's room in a household of women. I suppose it was your--your father's," he added. "No, it wasn't," she returned briefly. She glanced at him for an instant and then looked away again. "You probably don't know the history of the Shoe-Bar," she went on more firmly. "Two years ago it was bought by a young man named Stratton. I never met him, but he was a business acquaintance of my father's and naturally I heard a good deal of him from time to time. He was a ranchman all his life and very keen about it, and the moment he saw the Shoe-Bar he fell in love with it. But the war came, and he had scarcely taken title to the place before he went off and enlisted. Just before he sailed for France he sold the ranch to my father, with the understanding that if he came back safely, Dad would turn it over to him again. He felt, I suppose, how uncertain it all was and that money in the bank would be easier for his--his heirs, than property."