"So's to have the place to himself, I reckon. He an' those greasers in the kitchen, and the rest of the bunch, are as thick as thieves."
"You mean he'd find it easier to get away with cattle if there wasn't anybody around to keep tabs on him?"
Bemis hesitated. "I--I'm not sure," he replied slowly. "Partly that, mebbe, but there's somethin' else. I've overheard things now an' then I couldn't make head or tail of, but they're up to somethin'--Yuh ain't goin', are yuh?"
Buck had risen. "Got to," he shrugged. "Miss Thorne's waiting for me to go down to the south pasture."
Bemis raised up on his pillows. "Well, listen; keep what I said under yore hat, will yuh?"
"Sure," nodded Stratton reassuringly. "You needn't worry about that. Anything else you want before I go?"
"Yes. Jest reach me my six-gun outer the holster there in the chair. If I'm goin' to be left alone with that greaser, Pedro, I'd feel more comfortable, someway, with that under my pillow."
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.