"You mean that they steal?"
"Plenty, ma'am."
"But how? Who?"
"I don't know, but it seems to be gettin' quite the custom here to get rich off the HC ... especially since the place changed owners."
"Why at that particular time?"
"Since it got noised about that a woman was goin' to own it there's been a lively interest in crime. I told you that your uncle was a man who was respected a lot. Some feared him, too."
"And they won't respect me because I'm a woman?"
"That's about it. It's believed, ma'am, that a woman, 'specially an Eastern woman, can't make a go of it out here, so what's the use of givin' her a fair show?"
He waited for her to speak again but she did not and he added with that experimental manner:
"So, maybe, if you want to make money, it'd be well to find a buyer. Maybe if you was to take an interest in this ranch and did want to be ... to stay in this country, you couldn't make it go."