"I didn't know who you were," he sullenly defended.

"I see. You only shoot at women when you don't know who they
are." She turned her back on him pointedly and addressed herself
to McWilliams. "You can tell the men working on this ranch that I
won't have any more such attacks on this man Bannister. I don't
care what or who he is. I don't propose to have him murdered by
my employees. Let the law take him and hang him. Do you hear?"

"I ce'tainly do, and the boys will get the word straight," he
replied.

"I take it since yuh are giving your orders through Mac, yuh
don't need me any longer for your foreman," bullied Morgan.

"You take it right, sir," came her crisp reply. "McWilliams will
be my foreman from to-day."

The man's face, malignant and wolfish, suddenly lost its mask.
That she would so promptly call his bluff was the last thing he
had expected. "That's all right. I reckon yuh think yuh know your
own business, but I'll put it to yuh straight. Long as yuh live
you'll be sorry for this."

And with that he wheeled away.

She turned to her new foreman and found him less radiant than she
could have desired. "I'm right sorry y'u did that. I'm afraid
y'u'll make trouble for yourself," he said quietly.