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.Alfred, what do you think best?""It'll make trouble, Majesty, but it's got to be done," repliedAlfred."Here you have a crowd of Eastern friends due next month.We wantthe range to ourselves then.But, Stillwell, if you drive those vaqueros off,won't they hang around in the foothills? I declare they are a bad lot."Stillwell's mind was not at ease.He paced the porch with a frown cloudinghis brow."Gene, I reckon you got this Greaser deal figgered better'n me,"said Stillwell."Now what do you say?""He'll have to be forced off," replied Stewart, quietly.TheDon's pretty slick, but his vaqueros are bad actors.It's just this way.Nels said the other day to me, 'Gene, I haven't packed a gun for years untillately, and it feels good whenever I meet any of those strange Greasers.' Yousee, Stillwell, Don Carlos has vaqueros coming and going all the time.They're guerrilla bands, that's all.And they're getting uglier.There havebeen several shooting-scrapes lately.A rancher named White, who lives up thevalley, was badly hurt.It's only a matter of time till something stirs upthe boys here.Stillwell, you know Nels and Monty and Nick.""Sure I know 'em.An' you're not mentionin' one more particular cowboy in myoutfit," said Stiliwell, with a dry chuckle and a glance at Stewart.Madeline divined the covert meaning, and a slight chill passed over her, as ifa cold wind had blown in from the hills."Stewart, I see you carry a gun," she said, pointing to a black handleprotruding from a sheath swinging low along his leatherchaps."Yes, ma'am.""Why do you carry it?" she asked."Well," he said, "it's not a pretty gun--and it's heavy." She caught theinference.The gun was not an ornament.His keen, steady, dark gaze causedher vague alarm.What had once seemed cool and audacious about this cowboy wasnow cold and powerful and mystical.Both her instinct and her intelligencerealized the steel fiber of the man's nature.As she was his employer, shehad the right to demand that he should not do what was so chillingly manifestthat he might do.But Madeline could not demand.She felt curiously youngand weak, and the five months of Western life were as if they had never been.She now had to do with a question involving human life.And the value sheplaced upon human life and its spiritual significance was a matter far fromher cowboy's thoughts.A strange idea flashed up.Did she place too muchvalue upon all human life? She checked that, wondering, almost horrified atherself.And then her intuition told her that she possessed a far strongerPage 80 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlpower to move these primitive men than any woman's stern rule or order."Stewart, I do not fully understand what you hint that Nels and his comradesmight do.Please be frank with me.Do you meanNels would shoot upon little provocation?""Miss Hammond, as far as Nels is concerned, shooting is now just a matter ofhis meeting Don Carlos's vaqueros.It's wonderful what Nels has stood fromthem, considering the Mexicans he's already killed.""Already killed! Stewart, you are not in earnest?" criedMadeline, shocked."I am.Nels has seen hard life along the Arizona border.He likes peace aswell as any man.But a few years of that doesn't change what the early daysmade of him.As for Nick Steele andMonty, they're just bad men, and looking for trouble.""How about yourself, Stewart? Stillwell's remark was not lostupon me," said Madeline, prompted by curiosity.Stewart did not reply.He looked at her in respectful silence.In her keen earnestness Madeline saw beneath his cool exterior and was all themore baffled.Was there a slight, inscrutable, mocking light in his eyes, orwas it only her imagination?However, the cowboy's face was as hard as flint."Stewart, I have come to love my ranch," said Madeline, slowly, "and I care agreat deal for my--my cowboys.It would be dreadful if they were to killanybody, or especially if one of them should be killed.""Miss Hammond, you've changed things considerable out here, but you can'tchange these men.All that's needed to start them is a little trouble.Andthis Mexican revolution is bound to make rough times along some of the wilderpasses across the border.We're in line, that's all.And the boys are getting stirred up.""Very well, then, I must accept the inevitable.I am facing a rough time.And some of my cowboys cannot be checked much longer.But, Stewart, whateveryou have been in the past, you have changed." She smiled at him, and hervoice was singularly sweet and rich."Stillwell has so often referred to youas the last of his kind of cowboy.I have just a faint idea of what a wildlife you have led.Perhaps that fits you to be a leader of such rough men.Iam no judge of what a leader should do in this crisis.My cowboys areentailing risk in my employ; my property is not safe; perhaps my life evenmight be endangered.I want to rely upon you, since Stillwell believes, andI, too, that you are the man for this place.I shall give you no orders.Butis it too much to ask that you be my kind of a cowboy?"Madeline remembered Stewart's former brutality and shame and abject worship,and she measured the great change in him by the contrast afforded now in hisdark, changeless, intent face."Miss Hammond, what kind of a cowboy is that?" he asked."I--I don't exactly know.It is that kind which I feel you might be.But Ido know that in the problem at hand I want your actions to be governed byreason, not passion.Human life is notPage 81 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlfor any man to sacrifice unless in self-defense or in protecting thosedependent upon him.What Stillwell and you hinted makes me afraid of Nels andNick Steele and Monty
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