"Then you shouldn't be surprised he wants to prove he's better than anybody else. That's what men do."

"I wish your father were here," Belle complained. "He would know what to do."

"He'd let me ride with the men," Sydney said, still sullen.

"What do you think?" Melody said, turning to Chet.

"I think you ought to leave it up to Tom," Chet said, not wanting to get into the middle of this argument. "He's the one who'd be responsible for the boy."

"n.o.body's responsible for me," Sydney said. "I own the ranch. Tom works for me. I'm not a boy."

"But you must have some experience of boys," Melody said to Chet. "You had a lot of brothers."

"And you were a foreman, too," Belle added.

Both women had ignored Sydney's outburst. Chet decided that was the crux of the problem. They ignored the boy when they shouldn't and came down heavy when they realized he was on the verge of growing into manhood. But women never wanted to let their children grow up and a.s.sume adult responsibilities. Even Isabelle had trouble with that, and there wasn't any female Chet admired more than his adoptive mother.

"You won't like what I think," Chet warned.

"Why not?" Melody asked.

Chet didn't want to make Melody angry with him, but he'd been doing it ever since he arrived. There seemed little point in stopping now.

"I think he ought to be riding with Tom. I don't think it's sensible for a man to own a ranch or any other kind of business and not know how to run it. He'll be cheated and robbed if he's ignorant. He won't be respected by other men."

"But he's only fourteen," Belle objected.

"That's almost a man out here."

"See, I told you," Sydney said, flashing a smile of thanks at Chet.

"However," Chet added, "I'm disturbed by his carelessness with a gun. I wouldn't let him carry one for at least a year."

"What do you know about ranching?" Sydney demanded. "We got rustlers, we got"

"He grew up on a ranch," Melody said. "He was foreman."

"Then you can tell us what to do to keep the ranch," Belle said.

Chapter Eight.

If he had any sense at all, he'd excuse himself and disappear into his room. "I don't know anything about your situation. I couldn't give advice."

They weren't going to let him off that easy.

"Lantz Royal wants to marry me," Melody said. "I don't know which he wants more, me or the ranch, but he's made it plain he means to have both. He's putting pressure on me by hazing the men."

"Why does he want your ranch?"

"He wants to own everything within his reach."

"Then you have a choicesell out, fight, or marry him." He couldn't imagine Melody married to Lantz without wanting to shoot the man.

"We can't sell because Lantz won't buy," Belle said.

"And no one else will offer because they're afraid of Lantz," Melody said. "We can't fight him because he's got three times as many men," Tom added.

"And I refuse to marry him," Melody said. "I wouldn't even if he weren't a bully."

"Tom says if he pushes us off our grazing range, it'll leave us with nothing," Belle said.

"I expect your husband didn't own the land he grazed."

"n.o.body does," Neland said. "We graze the land we can hold."

"Then you ought to buy the pieces that are essential, the land around springs, along streams, good grazing or hay meadows. If you owned those, there wouldn't be any point in anyone trying to run you off. You could also inform your local law officers of what's happening."

"That won't do any good. Lantz controls everybody."

"Then write the marshal's office. And doc.u.ment every incident with names of people who can vouch for you."

"They only help people with money."

"If you like, I'll write for you."

"Why should you do that?" Tom asked.

"Writing a letter isn't much."

"But it'll get you into trouble with Lantz Royal."

"That won't make any difference. I'll be gone in a few days anyway."

"We've been having some rustling, too," Melody said. "What would you do about that?"

"I'd have to know more about your operation here."

"Even general advice would be a help."

He found himself wanting to tell her to ask him to stay. He'd get rid of any rustler fool enough to set foot on her ranch. "Organize night watches. It's harder to steal cows when people are around. Since the rustling at all the ranches started about the same time, it's probably being done by the same outfit. It's likely they're taking all the cattle to the same place. It ought to be easy to find out where. Once you do that, you have a chance of finding out who's doing the rustling."

"That doesn't sound very difficult," Melody said, looking toward Tom.

"I'm not finished yet," Chet said.

"What else?"

"When you find the rustlers, you've got to go after them. That'll mean using guns."

"But you said we ought to notify the law."

"If you wait for the law to do the work for you, you won't have any cows left. I told you before, people have to be their own law out here."

"Like Lantz?"

"I imagine he did a right good job before he got greedy."

"Pa faced him down," Sydney stated proudly. "He told him if he so much as touched a single Spring Water cow, he'd burn him out."

"How did your father die?" Chet asked.

"He and his horse fell into a ravine in a storm," Tom said.

"He had no business being out in that kind of weather," Belle said. "I begged him not to go."

"Why did he?" Chet asked.

"He wouldn't tell me," Belle said.

"He was certain we were losing cows," Tom said. "He thought the rustlers would raid during the storm and he could catch them."

That didn't make sense to Chet. No intelligent man went out alone in a storm. Besides, an experienced rancher knew the location of every ravine and canyon on his land. It wouldn't surprise him to learn there was something fishy about Bob Jordan's death. But Chet had no intention of voicing that thought. Putting it into this family's heads would just cause trouble and unhappiness. It was probably too late to find out what really happened anyway.

The door to the kitchen opened. One of the cowhands entered the dining room.

"We got hit by rustlers again," the man announced without waiting to be invited to speak. "They didn't get many steers, but they hit Toby."

"Is he dead?" Belle asked, her hand clutching her breast.

"It was just a graze, but they tried to kill him. The boys want to saddle up and go after them."

Tom crumpled up his napkin and pushed back his chair. "Saddle my horse. I'll be with you in a minute. I was afraid they weren't going to be satisfied with just a few yearlings," he said, turning to Melody. "They mean to keep it up until they've picked us clean."

"Chet just said"

"This is no time for thinking and planning," Tom snapped. "It's time to do something. I'm going to hire a gunslick to take out these rustlers."

"No," Melody said. "You've got a crew. They can"

"They're cowhands, Melody, not gunhands. You can't expect them to risk their lives unless they get gunhand wages. That's at least twenty dollars a month extra."

"I'm not hiring a gunman."

"Lantz Royal did the minute they touched his herd. They say he's lightning with a gun. Blond, like this fella here," he said pointing at Chet. "Name's Luke something."

So Luke was working for Lantz. Chet had feared as much. He tried to keep track of his brother, but Luke liked to keep his movements to himself.

"I'm not hiring a gunfighter," Melody said.

"But if Lantz did it" Belle began.

"I don't care what Lantz did," Melody said, interrupting.

"Mama and I can vote you down," Sydney said. "We can cancel anything you say."

"We can talk about this later," Tom said. "Right now I've got to see if we can track those rustlers before they get too far away."

Chet hoped Luke had nothing to do with the rustling. Chet had always made sure he hired out to men he believed were trying to defend themselves, men who had right on their side. Luke hadn't always been as careful, but he'd never stepped over the line. Or not very far.

Chet hoped he was here purely to look for the rustlers. But that wasn't Luke's style. He wasn't much on riding through rough country, chasing down thieves and outlaws. He'd left that to Chet. So far that had kept them out of each other's way.

"I said, what do you think?" Belle was saying to Chet, a sharp edge to her voice. She didn't like knowing a man could be at the same table as she and not be aware of her presence.

"What do you want to know?" Chet asked.

"What do you think about hiring a gunfighter to go after these rustlers?"

"A lot of people do it."

"But would you do it?" Melody asked.

"No," Chet said, looking her full in the face. "I'd go after them myself. And I wouldn't stop until I caught them. If I brought any back alive, they'd hang."

Melody blanched. "You don't seem to feel any mercy."

"Not for thieves," Chet said. "I work for what I have. I see no reason to let any man take it from me. Besides, a man who steals once will steal again."

"But he could change, decide to"

"We're all what Nature made us, ma'am. Just like the leopard, we can't change our spots."

"Then you'll be a gunman for the rest of your life."

Chet couldn't see his own expression, but it apparently had been enough to make Melody regret her words.

"I didn't mean it like that."

"You're right," Chet said. "My father was a gunfighter. So is my brother. We are what we are, and we can't do anything about it."

"But you've left the profession."

"I don't want to kill anymore, but I'll pick up my guns again if I need to. I may not want to kill again, but I wouldn't hesitate to defend myself."