"Ranch Number Ten, please. In a hurry."
He waited impatiently and, it seemed to him, an inexcusably long time. Finally the operator said after the aloof manner of telephone girls:
"I am ringing them."
And again——
"I am ringing them."
And then——
"They do not answer."
And at last, and then only when Steve made emphatic that there must be some one at the Number Ten bunk-house at this hour, the girl said:
"Wait a minute."
And after that: