Hervey blessed again the mercy of the darkness which concealed the crimson that spread hotly over his face.  There was enough truth in what the rancher said to make the untruths the more painful.  Before the accident Hervey had, indeed, been all that anyone could ask in a manager.  But when too much authority came into his hands owing to the crippling of his chief, the temptation proved too strong for resistance.  It was all so easy.  A few score of cows run off here and there were never noted, and his share in the profit was fifty-fifty.  Indeed, as the hand of Jordan crushed over his own he came perilously near to making a clean breast of everything, but the memory of his fat and growing bank-account gagged the confession.

“If that’s the way things are standing,” Jordan was saying, “we got to get rid of this skunk Perris.  Good-looking, as I remember him, and Marianne is so darned lonely on the ranch that she might begin to take him serious and—­Hervey, I’ll give you a written note.  That’ll be authority.  I’ll give you a note to Marianne, telling her that I’ve got to go across the mountains and that I want you to have the running of the place till I get back.  I guess that’ll give you a free hand, Lew!  You fire that Perris, and when he’s gone, send me word over to the hotel in Lawrence.  That’s where I’ll go.”

Hervey appeared dubious with great skill.

“I’ll take the note, Jordan,” he said, putting all the despair he could summon into his tone.  “But it sure goes hard—­the idea of losing my place up here.  I’ve been in the Valley so long, you see, that it’s like a home to me.”

“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.”

“Were you ever able to convince her, once she made up her mind?”

“H-m-m,” growled Jordan.

“And she’ll never rest till things are so hot for me that I got to get out.  Not that I grudge it, Jordan.  I’d give up more than this job for your sake.  Only it sure makes me homesick to think about starting out at my time of life and riding herd for a strange outfit.”

“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!”

With well-acted diffidence, Lew held out the paper, which Oliver Jordan snatched and smoothed on his knee.  Then Hervey rode closer, lighted a match, and held it so that the rancher could see to write.