He felt more secure and capable. Beginning with the
following day, he meant to take charge of the ranch and run it as he
knew it should be run.
He had not been at the Double A long, but he had seen signs of
shiftlessness here and there. He had no doubt that since Bransford's
death the men had taken advantage of the absence of authority to relax,
and the ranch had suffered. He would soon bring them back to a state
of efficiency.
He heard a step behind him, and looking over his shoulder he saw the
little man approaching.
The little man joined Sanderson, not speaking as he climbed the fence
at a point near by and sat on the top rail, idly swinging his legs.
Sanderson had conceived a liking for Owen. There was something about
the little man that invited it. He was little, and manly despite his
bodily defects. But there was a suggestion of effeminacy mingling with
the manliness of him that aroused the protective instinct in Sanderson.
In a big man the suggestion of effeminacy would have been disgusting,
and Sanderson's first action as owner of the ranch would have been to
discharge such a man instantly.
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