Page:Caroline Lockhart--The full of the Moon.djvu/230

 discourtesy was solely upon her account. His trained self-repression, his instinctive good manners and breeding, were in constant contrast to Ben's raw selfishness—the selfishness of a child who has not seen enough of the world to recognize the claims of others.

Yet Ben was the embodiment of the spirit of the cowboy, an incarnation of the sand and brawn and grit of the far West, and, as such he made a mighty appeal to the primitive in the girl, to her youth, imagination, and markedly romantic nature.

Spiser heard the news of the partnership with glee, and the trend of his thoughts may be gathered from his jubilant exclamation:

"Good! We'll steal 'em blind!"

Spiser wanted revenge with savage intensity, and in his new foreman he found a willing tool. Heretofore his wishes in regard to Blakely's cattle and Blakely's range had been conveyed in veiled terms, though sufficiently strong to make Kansas Ed understand that for every "stray" branded by him he would receive an extra five on his monthly check. But now, in his eagerness, Spiser no longer took this slight precaution.