"Well, ma'am, none but a little with the buyer. He wasn't sh.o.r.e he should

give the money to no Nigra, but Billy Emery and the others backed me up and he gave in."

"The buyer," Cynthie mumbled to herself.

"I should have thought of that."Jeremiah was sure she should have, too. She would realize now that she hadmade a mistake, and he'd never get this chance again. But being in charge one time had been so good. Maybe one time was enough.

' "You did a fine job, Mr. Betts. You said you paid the others. Did youcollect your own pay, as well?"

"Oh, no, ma'am." Jeremiah was shocked at the suggestion. As she opened theenvelope, he couldn't help worrying that she would find less there than sheexpected and accuse him of stealing. He tried to think back on their conversation to see if he had made any mistakes or left anything out.

To his amazement, she began counting out his pay. And she did remember he was due an extra twenty- five cents a day. Only after his pile of bills hadbeen placed in his hand did she begin to count the rest. She wrote the amount in her big book and put the bills back in the envelope.

"There's one more thing I'd like you to do for me today, Mr. Betts."

"Yes, ma'am," he responded quickly, loo king at the pretty face and then averting his eyes out of old habit.

"Could you take this in to the bank for me?"She seemed to wait for an answer. Could she possibly think he would say no?"I'll do whatever you say, ma'am."She smiled again."I'll write out instructions for the banker." She bent over the desk and Jeremiah was able to watch her again.

"He will give you a receipt that says the amount. Be sure he gives it toyou.""Yes, ma'am.""Good." Cynthie folded the note, put it in the envelope with the money and handed it to Jeremiah.

"I wouldn't want that banker trying to cheat us."

Jeremiah was so amazed that he almost forgot to reach out and take the

envelope.

"You want me to go right now?" he asked coming to his feet because she wasrising.' "Yes, I do. I know you should have the rest of the day off since you just got back, but it is important that this get to the bank."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Now remember, Mr. Betts," she said, taking his arm as she walked toward the

door.

"As soon as that money's in the bank, you have the rest of the day off."

A slow smile spread across the dark face. Cynthie

opened the door and

teased, "Say h.e.l.lo to Mary for me."Jeremiah tried not to look too eager or surprised. "Yes, ma'am. I'll sh.o.r.edo that." He started to step outside and stopped for a moment.

"I want to thank you for let ting me do this, be the trail boss, I mean."

Cynthie smiled.

"Louie recommended you and I didn't doubt for a moment that you could do it."

The grin grew wide again. He nodded his thanks and stepped out onto the

porch. Louie sat waiting on the bottom step. He rose when he heard the dooropen behind him. Jeremiah grinned at him, as well, before placing his hat onhis head and hurrying toward the corral.

Louie and Cynthie watched him go then looked at one another."Must have gone all right," Louie suggested."I've sent him to town."Louie chuckled."Then things went all right." He walked slowly up the steps."Can I talk to you?"Cynthie stepped back to let him in."New problem?" she asked."More like an old one." He came inside far enough to close the door."Now that the boys are back, I'd like to have a better look around.""What do you expect to find that you didn't find before?" She hadn't meant to sound so discouraged."Don't know. nothin' maybe. But we were loo king for cattle before and hadnew riders and all. I'd like to get out there and check for signs of old camps, fires and such. Maybe figure out how somebody made off with the cattle."

"We don't even know that that happened. I

haven't..." She made a motion toward the ledgers on the desk.

"Oh, what's the use! I can't make heads or tails of those books anyway.""Ma'am, I don't know nothin' about what the books'll say, but I know whatshould have been out on that prairie and wasn't. I'll likely be gone two orthree days."

He was no longer asking for permission. Cynthie hadn't wanted to stop him, anyway.

"Good luck," she said.

"I'll leave early tomorrow and take Emery with me if you don't mind."

He tipped his hat and let himself out.Cynthie sighed. When was she going to admit that she couldn't run this ranchby herself? She should turn it all over to Louie's better judgment.

He was convinced they had been robbed, and he was in a better position to know than she was.

Even Kyle agreed with that. Kyle, in fact, offered a suspect.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the creak of the door as Winn stepped into the front room.

"I didn't mean to be eavesdropping, ma'am."Cynthie was momentarily startled but shrugged. "It's a small house,"she said."Ma'am?" He stepped forward."Louie was talking about stolen cattle. I didn't realize that you were having any trouble. I'd like to help."

"I appreciate that, but I don't know what you can do," Cynthie said, returning to her desk.

"If you'd let me, I could go through the books. I mean I could help you

understand them, maybe." He paused for a moment then went on in a hurry as if he

were afraid she would answer before she understood.

"I.

may be leaving soon, and I've got no way to repay you for loo king after me

unless you'll let me try to help. "The urgency in his voice was not lost on Cynthie. He was offering somethingthat he wasn't at all sure he would be able to give. Cynthie felt a tug at her heart that she hesitated to identify. She knew she could no more denyhim a chance to try than she could have denied Betts his chance as boss."I'm open to any suggestion," she said. She slapped the chair she had moved for Betts and watched him come toward it, nervous but smiling.

When he was seated safely in the chair, he leaned back and said, "Go back

about three years and read me all the entries." He listened for the sound ofpages turning. There was none."Go ahead," he urged. "I'm good at this."The tension in his body contradicted the confidence in his voice.Cynthie watched him for a moment then hastily flipped the pages to the beginning of the book. "Here. June, 1867. We had just moved out here."

She began reading the entries, numbers, prices, sellers and buyers.

Winn interrupted occasionally to ask a question or interpret something.

He could figure in his head and kept a running total of how many calves there

should be and how many yearlings. In the end, he came to the same conclusion Louie had.

Cynthie tossed the pencil onto the ledger and sighed."I guess I knew Louie was right. Even without adding up the numbers, he knewwhat he could expect. I was just hoping we'd discover that Victor had soldmore than Louie realized."

"I guess I haven't been much help."

Cynthie smiled.

"Why, because you came up with bad news?"

The humor in her voice surprised him.

"No. I mean, I didn't really tell you anything you didn't already know."

"Well, the answer to our next question doesn't lie in these books. Do youthink Louie will find anything?"

"That depends. It could be someone around here taking advantage of yourhusband's death and systematically taking a few head at a time.

But it might be one outfit that came through, took them at once and is long gone. Did any of your neighbors lose cattle? "

"Not that I've heard about." Cynthie found herself having trouble keepingher mind on business. Winn looked so earnest. She decided it was good forhim to have something to think about.

"Your men check the herd, don't they?"

Cynthie smiled but tried to keep it out of her voice. "Louie takes care of all that." She realized that she was more interested in Winn than in what he had to say about her ranch.

Winn hated to think that Louie might be anything but trustworthy, so hedidn't even suggest it. Another thought he didn't mention was that, whileMr. Franklin had kept good records, he hadn't made money. Even before the recent loss, he had needed to build up his herd but he hadn't made mucheffort to do that.

Cynthie watched Winn's face and wondered what was going on behind thosesightless eyes. Was he really going to leave her soon? Would everything go back to the way it had been before he came? She knew it was too late for that. She had already fallen in love with him. The voice that should have scolded her for such thoughts was blissfully silent.

Chapter Seven.

q^ztqts^q L^ynthie smiled to herself and closed the book that

contained the cattle records."Since you're so good at this," she began, trying to sound worded, "maybe youcould help me with these other ledgers." Setting the cattle records aside,she lifted two ledgers out of a drawer and opened the top one. She explainedthat it was the record of the loans her husband had made to small farmers inthe area. She began with the first name.

"Ididn't even know he was doing this," she added.It had sounded almost like an apology."How long has there been a bank in Wichita?" he asked."It just opened this year."' "There, you see? Your husband was just filling a gap. There's no thing wrong with loaning money if you're honest."

Cynthie read on, grateful for the rea.s.surance and grateful again when he

commented that the interest charged had been fair. She wondered why she hadthought it might be otherwise. The entries were in order of transaction, loans to one individual followed by a payment by another. Suddenly she read a name and stopped. "Merlin," she repeated.

"Willard Merlin?"

Winn felt as if he were doing a fairly good job of keeping track of each individual's payments and hoped that the distraction wouldn't make him lose it. "Who's Merlin?" he asked.