With increased impatience she turned again toward Steele. She must be at the house to meet her friends and the man was so annoyingly slow.
But at length he appeared again, galloping now.
"That's the first decent thing you've done today, Bill Steele," she murmured. "Hurry, will you?"
Steele hurried on. At a swinging gallop he passed along the winding road, hidden to her now and then by a tree or a shoulder of the ridge, riding into view again in a moment, the bulk of him growing smaller with the distance. At last he had come to the foot of the trail which passed to the right and into the southern half of the ranch. The girl watched breathlessly. Steele swerved his horse into the trail.
"He is going straight to Hell's Goblet!" she said sharply. "Whatever his game is, that man means business!"
And so did the young queen of Thunder River ranch. She waited no longer to watch him, gave but a speeding glance to the two automobiles now in full view in the valley. Running down the steep rocky pathway, she hastened to her office and her table telephone.
She rang three bells, a call for Ed Hurley at the Little Giant and, while waiting for his voice, set her finger to the bell set in her table. To Bradford, who came immediately, she said briefly:
"I want Booth Stanton. Just as quick as he can get here."
Hurley was in his little office, having barely returned from his talk with her. She gave him his orders without wasting words or time:
