to buy your ranch--to engage you as my superintendent. I want to
buy Don Carlos's ranch and other property to the extent, say, of
fifty thousand acres. I want you to buy horses and cattle--in
short, to make all those improvements which you said you had so
long dreamed of. Then I have ideas of my own, in the development
of which I must have your advice and Alfred's. I intend to
better the condition of those poor Mexicans in the valley. I
intend to make life a little more worth living for them and for
the cowboys of this range. To-morrow we shall talk it all over,
plan all the business details."

Madeline turned from the huge, ever-widening smile that beamed
down upon her and held out her hands to her brother.

"Alfred, strange, is it not, my coming out to you? Nay, don't
smile. I hope I have found myself--my work--my happiness--here
under the light of that western star."



VII Her Majesty's Rancho

FIVE months brought all that Stillwell had dreamed of, and so
many more changes and improvements and innovations that it was as
if a magic touch had transformed the old ranch. Madeline and
Alfred and Florence had talked over a fitting name, and had
decided on one chosen by Madeline. But this instance was the
only one in the course of developments in which Madeline's wishes
were not compiled with. The cowboys named the new ranch "Her
Majesty's Rancho." Stillwell said the names cowboys bestowed