Page:Caroline Lockhart--The Fighting Shepherdess.djvu/271

 "I think I'll 'cut' for a hard winter. You know my motto, 'Better be sure than sorry.'"

"I wouldn't be surprised if 'twan't a humdinger—last winter was so open. I think we'd be safer if we ship everything that's fat enough."

Bowers always said "we" when he spoke of the Outfit, though he was still only a camptender working for wages.

Kate relied upon him to keep her informed of the details of the business, which she had less time than formerly to look after personally. His judgment was sometimes at fault, but she trusted his honesty implicitly and, though she gave him little of her confidence, It was so much more than she gave to any other person that he was flattered by it.

"Guess what that Boston woolbuyer is offering me?" she tapped a letter.

"No Idee."

"Twenty-six cents."

Bowers whistled.

"Gosh a'mighty! You're goin' to take it, ain't you?"

"I'll get a quarter more, if I hold out for it."

His face fell a little.

"I'll get It!" Her voice had a metallic quality. "It's a fine long staple, and clean. If he won't, some one else will give it to me."

The sheep woman had the reputation now of being difficult to deal with, of haggling over fractions, and it was of this that Bowers was thinking. To others he would never admit that she was anything but perfect, though to himself he acknowledged the hardening process that was going on in her. He saw the growth of the driving ambition which made her indifferent to everything that did not tend to her personal interest.

Outside of himself and Teeters, Kate took no interest