“Lefty Forbes!” laughed Connie, clasping his horny hand in her own. “I’m glad to see one familiar face around here.”
“I reckon you won’t be seein’ mine much longer,” drawled the cowboy.
“What do you mean?” asked Connie quickly.
“Blakeman is figurin’ on givin’ me my honorable discharge if I kin read the signs,” replied the cowboy dryly. “But I calculate to beat him to the trigger. I’ll be quittin’ any day now.”
“Oh, Lefty, you can’t! Why, I need you here.”
“That’s the only reason I’ve stayed on, Connie,” said the cowboy soberly. “I thought a lot of your Dad, and this ranch. But there ain’t nothin’ I can do now. Blakeman runs things with a purty high hand.”
“He’s only the foreman, Lefty. Now that I’m home, I mean to manage the ranch myself.”
“I reckon you don’t know jest how bad things are, Connie.”
“Blakeman wrote me the ranch had been losing money the past year. Is that what you mean, Lefty?”
“Things have been runnin’ down hill ever since he took over, Connie. Blakeman’s handled the ranch with a high hand. First he fired Pete and Shorty——”