across the patio to her long wing of house; though he was unaware that
her voice was a trifle, just the merest trifle, subdued.




CHAPTER VIII



Five minutes after Paula had left him, punctual to the second, the
four telegrams disposed of, Dick was getting into a ranch motor car,
along with Thayer, the Idaho buyer, and Naismith, the special
correspondent for the _Breeders' Gazette_. Wardman, the sheep
manager, joined them at the corrals where several thousand young
Shropshire rams had been assembled for inspection.

There was little need for conversation. Thayer was distinctly
disappointed in this, for he felt that the purchase of ten carloads of
such expensive creatures was momentous enough to merit much
conversation.

"They speak for themselves," Dick had assured him, and turned aside to
give data to Naismith for his impending article on Shropshires in
California and the Northwest.

"I wouldn't advise you to bother to select them," Dick told Thayer ten
minutes later. "The average is all top. You could spend a week picking
your ten carloads and have no higher grade than if you had taken the
first to hand."