Judith of Blue Lake Ranch

by Jackson Gregory

  VI

  YOUNG HAMPTON REGISTERS A PROTEST

  It was after eight o'clock when Tripp rode in on a sweat-wet horse.Judith met him in the courtyard, giving him her two hands impulsively.

  "I'm so glad you've come, Doc!" she cried softly. "Oh, you don't knowhow glad--yet."

  She called Jose to take Tripp's mount and then led the way into thegreat living-room where deep cushions and leather chairs made forcomfort.

  "I'll give you time to draw a second breath," she told him, forcinginto her tone a lightness which she did not quite feel, even though asurge of satisfaction had warmed her at the first thud of his horse'shoofs. "Then we'll talk."

  She switched on the lights and turned to look at Tripp. He was thesame little old Doc Tripp, she noted. His wiry body scarcely biggerthan a boy's of fourteen, he was a man of fifty whose face, like hisbody, suggested the boy with bright, eager eyes and a frank, friendlysmile.

  "Prettier than ever, eh, Judy?" Tripp cocked his head to one side andgave his unqualified approval of the slim, supple body, and superbcarriage of this girl of the mountains, warming to the vivid, vitalbeauty of the rosy face. "Been driving those cow-college boys down atBerkeley plumb crazy, I'll bet a prize colt!"

  Judith laughed at him, watched his slight form disappear in the widearms of a chair which seemed fairly to smother him in its embrace.Then from her own nook by the fireplace she opened her heart to him:

  "It's not just that Trevors has crippled me by taking all of my milkersaway; not just that he has come near doing I don't know how much harmin having Crowdy turn those calves with the lung-worm out into thefields with the others; not just that during the last few months, hehas lost money for us right and left; not just that Benny, the cook,has tried to fire the range."

  "What's that last?" said Tripp quickly. "Tried to smoke you out, huh?"

  She told him briefly. How she had first seen the smoke as she cameback to the ranch-house; how she had sent Jose on the run to get someof the other hands to see that the fire did not spread; how, a littlewhile ago, Carson, the cattle foreman, had come in and assured her thatthe damage was negligible.

  "It was just a brush fire," said Judith. "Thank Heaven, things arepretty green yet. Carson says it might have been lighted by Benny,who, it seems, is one of Trevors's hirelings and not above this sort ofthing; or it might have been accidentally started by some carelesshunter. Anyway, and that's enough for me, the fire broke out close tothe trail that Benny travelled on his way to the Western Lumber camp.But it isn't just these things which have set me to wondering, Doc.What I want to know is this: in how many other, still undiscoveredways, has Trevors been knifing us? And what else will he have ready tospring on us now?"

  "Just what do you mean?" Tripp looked a her keenly.

  "This case of lung-worm, to begin with: where did it come from?"

  "Imported," said Tripp. "Trevors bought those calves, or at least fourof the sick ones, last month. Brought them in from somewhere down theriver. Smuggled 'em in, so far as I am concerned. Never gave me achance to look them over." He paused a second. "Specially imported, Imight say."

  "I knew it!" cried Judith. "That's the sort of thing I am afraid of.If he has gone to the limit of introducing one disease among ourcattle, what other plagues has he brought to the ranch? Has heimported any other outside stock?"

  "No. He's been busier selling at a sacrifice than buying, just as Iwrote you. Never another head has he bought lately--unless," andTripp's eyes twinkled at her, "you count pigeons!"

  "Pigeons!" repeated Judith.

  Tripp nodded.

  "Funny, isn't it," he went on lightly--"that a man like Bayne Trevors,hard as nails and as free of sentiment as a mule, should fancy littlecooing, innocent-like pigeons? You'll hear them in the morning."

  But Judith was not to be distracted by Tripp's talk. She smiled athim, however, to show him that she had understood and appreciated thepurpose back of his light words.

  "We're all going to have our hands full for a spell, Doc," was what shesaid. "To Trevors, with a free swing here, it must have appearedrather a simple matter to make so complete a failure as to force us,encumbered as we are, into selling out to the highest bidder inside theyear. Especially when he counted young Pollock Hampton as a manwithout business experience and Judith Sanford as a girl withoutbrains! But, Doc, he must have known, too, that at any time theremight occur the very thing which has happened--that he'd lose his job.He strikes me as a rather long-headed man, doesn't he you? Now, a manwho saw ahead, figuring on this very contingency, would have more thanone trick up his sleeve. We've caught him, luckily, at the sick-calfgame, before it is too late. I think that the obvious thing for you todo is to make certain that all the rest of the stock are in shape.Will you begin to-morrow making a thorough investigation?"

  "Yes," he answered. "You're right there, Judith. There's nothing likemaking sure."

  "He's not through with us," continued the girl thoughtfully; "you couldread that in the look of his jaw and eye when he left. Just what hestands to make on his play, I don't know. But I do know that theWestern Lumber crowd is offering us only a quarter of what they'd bewilling to pay if they had to. That means that they could afford tobribe Bayne Trevors pretty heavily and still save half a million on thedeal if he succeeded in the thing he has begun."

  "In his way," admitted Tripp thoughtfully, "Trevors is a big man. Bigmen cost big money. And, besides, it looks to me as though he were aheavy stockholder in the Western Lumber. He'd stand to win two ways."

  "Another thing I want you to do," Judith went on, "is to try to locateall of dad's old men whom Trevors let go. Johnny Hodge and Kelley andHarper and Tod Bruce. We'll need them. We've got to have men thatcrooked money can't buy."

  "Aren't you magnifying things, Judith?" asked Tripp quietly. "There'ssuch a thing as law in this country, you know."

  But she shook her head.

  "Maybe I am seeing the dangers too big. But I don't think so. And itwill be a lot better for Blue Lake ranch if I see them that way at thebeginning. And as for the law, it costs money. I'm not sure thatTrevors or the lumber people would be averse to getting us involved ina lot of legal intricacies. Oh, he has been careful not to leave anydefinite proof behind him."

  "You hit the bell that time!" laughed Tripp, and Judith smiled with himas there came to their ears the faint tinkle of the telephone-bell inthe office.

  Judith excused herself and hastened to answer the summons. Hastenedbecause she wanted to be back with Tripp as soon as might be. So,knowing her way so well about the big house, she went quickly throughthe dark hall-way without turning aside to switch on the lights andcame into the office, dimly lighted by the stars shining in through thewindows.

  "Doc!" Her voice rang out suddenly and Tripp sprang to his feet,wondering what had put that note into her exclamation. "Doc! Comehere, quick!"

  He ran into the hall that was suddenly illuminated as at last Judith'sgroping hand found the office switch. He saw Judith running ahead ofhim, out of the door opening on to the veranda and down into thecourtyard.

  "What is it?" he asked sharply.

  "There was some one here," she told him quickly. "He went out thatway, I think. Look through the lilacs."

  She ran on one way, Tripp hurrying the other, wondering. They saw thelilacs standing still in the starlight, saw the thick shadows thrown bythe columns and grape-covered trellises, heard the murmuring of thefountain.

  "Jose, perhaps," suggested Tripp, coming at last to her side.

  "No!" cried Judith. "It wasn't. It was somebody in his stocking feet,standing in the hallway, listening to us. I heard him run before me; Isaw him for a second, framed against the square of the window as heslipped through and out on the veranda. Who could it have been, Doc?"

  But a close search through the shrubbery showed them nothing. It wasclear that if a man had been listening at the door he could have hadample opportunity to slip away into th
e darkness. He would not beloitering here now.

  The telephone-bell was still insistently ringing and they turned backto the office.

  "Judy," said Tripp solicitously, "don't you go and get nerves, now."

  "You think I imagined the whole thing!" She looked at him with clear,confident eyes. "Don't you fool yourself for one little minute, DocTripp. I'm not the imagining kind--yet!"

  She snatched up the telephone instrument.

  "Hello," said Judith. "Who is it?"

  It was the telegraph operator in Rocky Bend. A message for Miss JudithSanford from Pollock Hampton, San Francisco. And the message ran:

  What were you thinking of to chuck Trevors? Thoroughly excellent man.You should have consulted me. Don't do anything more until I come.Send conveyance to meet Saturday train. Bringing five guests with me.

  POLLOCK HAMPTON.

  Judith turned frowning to Tripp.

  "As if I didn't have enough on my hands already," she exclaimedbitterly, "without Hampton dragging his fool guests into the mix-up! Icould slap his face."

  "Do it!" chuckled Tripp. "Good idea!"