"No, I am going to stay here. I am thinking of ranching."
"Ranching!" he exclaimed.
"Yes. Why not?"
"Do you know anything about it?"
"No, but I could learn, I suppose."
"I suppose you might. But the work is hard—man's work. I wouldn't buy a ranch, if I were you."
"But I have one—or the makings of one. A few years ago Uncle Godfrey bought nearly a thousand acres for father. I'm afraid there isn't much of it cleared, and there is no house fit to live in. I had been to look at it, and was riding back by this old logging camp. That's how I happened to be here."
"Where is this land?" Angus asked.
Her reply gave him almost as much of a shock as he had received from the bear; for as she described it, the land, or at least part of it, was none other than the old Tetreau place which Mr. Braden had painstakingly tried to unload on Chetwood. But if it belonged to her or to her father how could Braden sell it? And then, again, she had spoken of nearly a thousand acres, while the old Tetreau place comprised some five hundred only. Something of his thoughts reflected in his face.
"Do you know the land?" she asked.