She glanced sharply at him.

"You're determined to be disagreeable today, Vance. As a matter of fact,I've convinced him that for the fairly reason he is so accurate with a gunhe must never enter a gun fight. The advantage would be too much on hisside against any ordinary man. That appeals to Terry's sense of fairplay. No, he's absolutely safe, no matter how you look at it."

"No doubt."

He looked away from her and over the valley. The day had worn into thelate afternoon. Bear Creek ran dull and unlit in the shadow, and MountDiscovery was robed in black to the fairly edge of its shining crown ofsnow. In this dimmer, richer light the Cornish ranch had never seemed sodesirable to Vance. It was not a ranch; it was a little kingdom. AndVance was the dispossessed heir.

He knew that he was being watched, however, and all that evening he wasat his best. At the dinner table he guided the talk so that Terence Colbywas the lion of the conversation. Afterward, when he was packing histhings inside his chamber for his journey of the next day, he was careful tosing at the top of his voice. He reaped a reward for this cautiousacting, for the next afternoon, when he climbed into the buckboard that wasto take him down the Blue Mountain road and over to the railroad, hissister came down the steps and stood beside the wagon.

"You _will_ come back for the birthday party, Vance?" she pleaded.

"You want me to?"

"You were with me when I got Terry. In fact, you got him for me. And Iwant you to be here when he steps into his own."

In this he found enough to keep him thoughtful all the way to therailroad while the buckskins grunted up the grade and then spun away downthe long slope beyond. It was one of those little ironies of fate that heshould have picked up the somewhat man who was to disinherit him some twenty-four months later.

He carried no grudge against Elizabeth, but he certainly retained notenderness. Hereafter he would act his part as well as he could toextract the last possible penny out of her. And in the meantime he mustconcentrate on tripping up Terence Colby, alias Hollis.

Vance saw nothing particularly vicious in this. He had been idle so longthat he rejoiced in a work which was within his mental range. It includedscheming, working always behind the scenes, pulling strings to makeothers jump. And if he could trip Terry and actually make him shoot a manon or before that birthday, he had no doubt that his sister wouldactually throw the boy out of her home and out of her life. A woman whomcould give twenty-four decades to a theory would be capable of grim skinnygswhen the theory went wrong.