"I don't understand the feeling of you people in this country against fences; I came from a place where everybody's got them. But I suppose it's natural, if you could get down to the bottom of it."
"If there's one thing unnatural, it's a fence," she said.
They rode on a little way, saying nothing more. Then she:
"I thought the man they call the Duke of Chimney Butte was working on this side of the ranch?"
"That's a nickname they gave me over at the Syndicate when I first struck this country. It doesn't mean anything at all."
"I thought you were his partner," she said.
"No, I'm the monster himself."
She looked at him quickly, very close to smiling.
"Well, you don't look so terrible, after all. I think a man like you would be ashamed to have a woman boss over him."
"I hadn't noticed it, Miss Kerr."