"You don't? Wait till I tell Kate." "It ain't necessary to tell my daughter," Mr. Saltoun remonstrated, hurriedly. "I suppose my saying that about Marie might give Molly a wrong idea maybe about Racey. But how do you know she likes Racey? You been talking to her? Did she tell you so?" "I ain't, and she didn't. I been talking to Kate. She told me. Don't ask me how she knows. She says she knows, and that's enough for me. You can't fool a woman in things like that." "You can't fool 'em in anything," Mr. Saltoun corroborated, bitterly. "I shore oughtn't to said that about Racey and Marie. I'll go right back and tell Molly it ain't so." Mr. Saltoun started to wheel his horse, but Tom Loudon halted that manoeuvre. "You gotta let it go now," said he. "If you tell her you didn't mean what you said she shore _will_ think it's true." "We-ell, if you think I'd better not, I won't," Mr. Saltoun assented, doubtfully. "But I wouldn't say anything to Kate if I was you." "Then I won't," said Tom Loudon, his tongue in his cheek. "Where you think yo're going?" Mr. Saltoun queried presently. "This ain't the way to the ranch." "I know it ain't. It's the way to Farewell." "Whyfor Farewell?" "It's just possible Racey may need a li'l help before he's through with this job." "You're right," Mr. Saltoun said, contritely. "I've been so took up with this Dale mortgage and the idea of Luke Tweezy and that skunk Lanpher getting this land that I ain't give much thought to anything else. Of course Racey will need help, and you and I are the fellers to give it to him." CHAPTER XXV STRATEGY Racey Dawson and Rack Slimson, rising a hill on the way to Farewell, simultaneously turned their heads and looked at each other. Rack's expression was dolefully sullen. Racey's was hard and uncompromising. "Who was it put you up to this?" asked Racey. "What?" "Coming out here after me." "I didn't come out after you, I tell you!" "Shore, shore," soothed Racey, "I know all about that. Who put you up to it?" "I dunno what yo're talkin' about." "The ignorance of some people," said Racey, recalling sundry occasions when other folk had oddly failed to grasp his meaning. They rode onward silently. When they reached the southern slope of Indian Ridge, Racey headed to the east. A spirit of unease lit heavily upon the sagging shoulders of Rack Slimson. "You ain't goin' straight for Farewell," he remarked at a venture. "I ain't--no." "I thought you was." "I am--but not straight." "Huh?" Rack Slimson wrinkled his forehead at this. "We're goin' in town from the side," explained Racey Dawson. This, too, was a puzzler. "Why?" queried Rack Slimson. "So's nobody will know we're coming till we're there." The smile with which Racey garnished his answer was chilling to the soul of Mr. Slimson. "But I don't see--"