"So she says," replied Dad benevolently. "I think she'll do a good job, too."
"Like so much hell, you do! An' I hear you're foreman, Dad. You figurin' on marryin' the outfit or gettin' rich by honest endeavor?"
"Sho, Larry! You and your jokes!" the man grumbled good naturedly and entered the building.
"Well, if any of you waddies are calculatin' marryin' this filly you've got to build to her. This dude sure means business. He's found out more about the HC in one day than I ever knew. Besides, what I knew an' he didn't he got comin' out. Sure's a devil for obtainin' news.
"There he is now; see?"
He gestured toward the ranch house where Jane and the stranger stood on the veranda, the girl pointing to the great sweep of country which showed down creek. Then they turned and reentered the house.
"And so this is yours!" the man laughed. "Yours and your business!"
"My business, Dick! For the first time I feel as though I had a real object in living."
He smiled cynically.
"Jane, Queen of the Range!" he mocked.