Judith of Blue Lake Ranch

Judith of Blue Lake Ranch, by Jackson

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Title: Judith of Blue Lake Ranch
Author: Jackson Gregory

Release Date: July 27, 2006 [eBook #18926]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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JUDITH OF BLUE LAKE RANCH
by
JACKSON GREGORY
Author of The Joyous Trouble Maker, Six Feet-Four, Etc.
Illustrated by W. Herbert Dunton

[Frontispiece: Judith's spurs answered him, and the bit . . . brought him about, whirling . . . bucking as only . . . a devil-hearted horse knows how to buck.]

New York Grosset & Dunlap Publishers Copyright, 1919, by Charles Scribner's Sons Published March, 1919 Reprinted April, 1920 Copyright, 1917, 1918, by the Ridgeway Company

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I.
BUD LEE WANTS TO KNOW II. JUDITH TAKES A HAND III. AND RIDES AN OUTLAW IV. JUDITH PUTS IT STRAIGHT V. THE BIGNESS OF THE VENTURE VI. YOUNG HAMPTON REGISTERS A PROTEST VII. THE HAPPENING IN SQUAW CREEK CA?ON VIII. RIFLE SHOTS FROM THE CLIFFS IX. THE OLD TRAIL X. UNDER FIRE XI. IN THE OLD CABIN XII. PARDNERS XIII. THE CAPTURE OF SHORTY XIV. SPRINGTIME AND A VISION XV. JUST A GIRL, AFTER ALL XVI. POKER FACE AND A WHITE PIGEON XVII. "ONCE A FOOL--ALWAYS A FOOL" XVIII. JUDITH TRIUMPHANT XIX. BUD LEE SEEKS CROOKED CHRIS QUINNION XX. THE FIGHT AT THE JAILBIRD XXI. BURNING MEMORY XXII. PLAYING THE GAME XXIII. THE WRATH OF POLLOCK HAMPTON XXIV. A SIGNAL-FIRE? XXV. THE TOOLS WHICH TREVORS USED XXVI. JUDITH'S PERIL XXVII. ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS XXVIII. BACON, KISSES, AND A CONFESSION XXIX. LEE AND OLD MAN CARSON RIDE TOGETHER XXX. THE FIGHT XXXI. YES, JUDITH WAS WAITING

ILLUSTRATIONS
Judith's spurs answered him, and the bit . . . brought him about, whirling . . . bucking as only . . . a devil-hearted horse knows how to buck . . . . . . Frontispiece
A lean, muscular hand fell lightly upon his shoulder and he was jerked back promptly
Quinnion was down and shooting, with but ten steps . . . between him and the man whom he sought to kill
"You'll find your work cut out for you."

Judith of Blue Lake Ranch
I
BUD LEE WANTS TO KNOW
Bud Lee, horse foreman of the Blue Lake Ranch, sat upon the gate of the home corral, builded a cigarette with slow brown fingers, and stared across the broken fields of the upper valley to the rosy glow above the pine-timbered ridge where the sun was coming up. His customary gravity was unusually pronounced.
"If a man's got the hunch an egg is bad," he mused, "is that a real good and sufficient reason why he should go poking his finger inside the shell? I want to know!"
Tommy Burkitt, the youngest wage-earner of the outfit and a profound admirer of all that taciturnity, good-humor, and quick capability which went into the make-up of Bud Lee, approached from the ranch-house on the knoll. "Hi, Bud!" he called. "Trevors wants you. On the jump."
Lee watched Tommy coming on with that wide, rocking gait of a man used to much riding and little walking. The deep gravity in the foreman's eyes was touched with a little twinkle by way of greeting.
Burkitt stopped at the gate, looking up at Lee. "On the jump, Trevors said," he repeated.
"The hell he did," said Lee pleasantly. "How old are you this morning, Tommy?"
Burkitt blushed. "Aw, quit it, Bud," he grinned. Involuntarily the boy's big square hand rose to the tender growth upon lip and chin which, like the flush in the eastern sky, was but a vague promise of a greater glory to be.
"A hair for each year," continued the quiet-voiced man. "Ten on one side, nine on the other."
"Ain't you going to do what Trevors says?" demanded Tommy.
For a moment Lee sat still, his cigarette unlighted, his broad black hat far back upon his close-cropped hair, his eyes serenely contemplative upon the pink of the sky above the pines. Then he slipped from his place and, though each single movement gave an impression of great leisureliness, it was but a flash of time until he stood beside Burkitt.
"Stick around a wee bit, laddie," he said gently, a lean brown hand resting lightly on the boy's square shoulder. "A man can't see what is on the cards until they're tipped, but it's always a fair gamble that between dawn and dusk I'll gather up my string of colts