Page "adventure" Paragraph 240

He finished with the team and filled his pipe and stood looking about him.

He had spent two hours riding around the ranch that morning, and in broad daylight it was even less inviting than Judith Pierce had made it seem.

There was brush, and stands of pine that no grass could grow under, and places so steep that cattle wouldn't stop to graze.

But there was water.

There was an artificial lake just out of sight in the first stand of trees, fed by a half dozen springs that popped out of the ground above the hillside orchard.

Yes, there was plenty of water, too much, and that was probably the trouble.

There were tracks of cattle all over his six hundred and forty acres.