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Updated: June 19, 2025
"How a man of that kind ever came to be Laura Waynefleet's father is more than I can figure out!" he said. "It's a question that worries me every time I look at him. Guess she owes everything to her mother; and Mrs. Waynefleet must have been a mighty patient woman." Nasmyth smiled, but Gordon went on reflectively: "You folks show your sense when you dump your freaks into this country," he said.
"Then," Acton said, "you can wait in my clerk's office until I'm ready to go over with you to Waynefleet's hotel." Hames went out, and Acton turned to Nasmyth. "He was hired with a few others to jump the claim he mentioned, and there was trouble over it.
"I've been talking a little sense to Waynefleet this morning. I felt I had to, though I'm afraid it's not going to be any use," he announced. "Whether you were warranted or not is, of course, another matter," said Nasmyth. "Perhaps you were, if you did it on Miss Waynefleet's account. Anyway, I don't altogether understand why you should be sure it will have no effect."
"Waynefleet's a blamed old thief, as everybody knows," he said. "Him being what he is, I guess you couldn't blame his daughter " Nasmyth, whom they had not noticed yet, could not quite hear what followed; but when somebody flung a sharp, incredulous question at the speaker, he stood fast in the doorway, with one hand clenched.
The sled was loaded with a big sack of flour and a smaller one of sugar, among other sundries which a rancher who lived farther back along the trail had brought up from the settlement in his waggon. Waynefleet's hired man was busy that morning, and as her stores were running out, Laura had gone for the goods herself.
"He can't," Acton broke in. "We're out on business. You may as well make it clear that we understand the thing." Waynefleet turned and looked at Acton with lifted brows, and had he been less angry, Nasmyth could have laughed at his attitude. Waynefleet's air of supercilious resentment was inimitable. "You have some interest in this affair?" he inquired. "Oh, yes," answered Acton cheerfully.
Laura Waynefleet's face was very quiet, and he sat silent a moment or two, wondering somewhat uneasily what she was thinking. He was also slightly surprised at himself, for he realized that, after all, he had found it considerably easier to stay away than he had expected.
Then I got a letter forwarded from Waynefleet's ranch, from which it appeared that Mr. Acton wished to see me." A faint sparkle crept into Violet Hamilton's eyes. "It is evident," she observed, "that we both find it a little difficult to say the right thing." "I'm afraid I am now and then a little remiss in that respect. Still, how have I offended?" Violet contrived to smile.
Wheeler nodded. "I guess that's wise. So far, we have come out ahead of Hutton and the rest of them," he asserted. "Our people hold the timber rights, and we have got the shingle-splitting plant in. You headed him off in Waynefleet's case, and there only remains the man with the old Bush claim.
There was then a cayuse pony in Waynefleet's stable, but it belonged to a neighbouring rancher, and Laura had no intention of handing it over to the strangers. "I'm afraid not," she answered. "The only horse on the ranch does not belong to us, and I wouldn't care to hire it out unless I had permission. Besides, I may want it myself. You could have obtained horses at the settlement hotel."
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