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Updated: June 25, 2025
"You ride for another outfit?" said Jordan. "And after you've worked this game on Perris for me? I'll tell you what, Lew, if you get Perris safe off the ranch you can stop worrying. You're foreman for life! You have my word for it." "But suppose " protested Hervey faintly. "Suppose nothing. You have my word. Besides, I'm tired of talking!"
The night before, when Perris rode off from the ranchhouse after defying Hervey and his men, his hoofbeats had no sooner faded to nothing than the cowpunchers swarmed out from the patio and into the open; as though they wished to put their heads together and plan the battle which the command of Hervey, to-night, had postponed. All of that was perfectly clear to Marianne.
She could be in her riding costume, with the rather mannish blouse and loosely tied cravat, spurs on her boots and quirt in her hand as became the mistress and ruling force of a big ranch. Then she received sudden and convincing proof that mere outward appearances meant nothing in the life of Red Jim Perris. He took off his hat and swung it in greeting.
When she was half-way up she met a neighbour. "Have yer seen Isaac?" Bessie asked her, panting. "'Ee's at the Club, arn't 'ee?" said the woman. "Well, they won't be up yet. Jim tolt me as Muster Perris" Muster Perris was the vicar of Clinton Magna "'ad got a strange gen'leman stayin' with 'im, and was goin' to take him into the Club to-night to speak to 'em.
It was well for Hervey then that his panic was not blind, but with the surety that the end was come he whirled to his knees with the chair which had felled him gripped in both hands and straight at the lunging Perris he hurled it with all his strength. The missile went home with a crash and Red Jim slumped into a formless shadow on the floor.
He would have veritably welcomed the brutalities of Cordova simply because they were familiar but this silent and clinging burden? He flung himself high in the air, snapped up his back, shook himself in mid-leap, and landed with every leg stiff. But a violence which would have hurled another man to the ground left Perris laughing. And were beasts understood, that laughter was a shameful mockery!
"And who the devil said anything about you leaving? Ain't I just now about to give you a note to run the ranch while I'm gone?" "Sure you are. And I'll take it and fire Perris. But when you come back that's the end of me!" "What?" "You know how your daughter is. She'll plumb hate me when I come back with orders to run things. She'll think I asked for 'em." "I'll tell her different."
"He's going to try Rickety. They look like one and the same kind to me two reckless devils, that hoss and Red Jim Perris!" "Is there real danger?" asked Marianne. Corson regarded her with pity. "Rickety can be rode, they say," he answered, "but I disremember anybody that's done it. Look! He's a man-killer that hoss!"
"I've heard everything from Lew Hervey," said the girl, in that low strained voice which a woman uses when her self-control is barely as great as her anger, "and I suppose I don't need to say that after these days of waiting, Mr. Perris, I'm disappointed. I shall need you no longer. You are free to go without giving notice. The experiment has been unfortunate."
On galloped Alcatraz, heading cunningly beneath the boughs until he was stopped by a shock that dropped him staggering to his knees. The pommel had struck a branch and Red Perris was still in place. Once more the chestnut started, reeling heavily in his lope. This time, to avoid the coming peril, the rider slipped far to one side and Alcatraz veered swiftly towards a neighboring tree trunk.
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