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THE CATTLE-BARON'S DAUGHTER

by

HAROLD BINDLOSS

Author of "Alton of Somasco," etc.







[Illustration: A FIERCE WHITE FROTHING ABOUT HIM.--Page 335.]



New York
Frederick A. Stokes Company
Publishers

Copyright, 1906, by
Frederick A. Stokes Company
This Edition published in September, 1906
All rights reserved




CONTENTS

CHAPTER                                PAGE
      I  The Portent                      1
     II  Hetty Takes Heed                12
    III  The Cattle-Barons               26
     IV  Muller Stands Fast              39
      V  Hetty Comes Home                50
     VI  The Incendiary                  62
    VII  Larry Proves Intractable        72
   VIII  The Sheriff                     85
     IX  The Prisoner                    96
      X  On the Trail                   110
     XI  Larry's Acquittal              122
    XII  The Sprouting of the Seed      134
   XIII  Under Fire                     144
    XIV  Torrance's Warning             155
     XV  Hetty's Bounty                 165
    XVI  Larry Solves the Difficulty    177
   XVII  Larry's Peril                  189
  XVIII  A Futile Pursuit               201
    XIX  Torrance Asks a Question       212
     XX  Hetty's Obstinacy              224
    XXI  Clavering Appears Ridiculous   238
   XXII  The Cavalry Officer            250
  XXIII  Hetty's Avowal                 262
   XXIV  The Stock Train                272
    XXV  Cheyne Relieves His Feelings   286
   XXVI  Larry's Reward                 296
  XXVII  Clavering's Last Card          309
 XXVIII  Larry Rides to Cedar           321
   XXIX  Hetty Decides                  331
    XXX  Larry's Wedding Day            343
   XXXI  Torrance Rides Away            355




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


"Come Down!"                                   _Facing page_  48

"She'll shoot me before she means to."                        66

A white face and shadowy head, from which
the fur cap had fallen.                                      114

"Aren't you a trifle late?"                                  160

There was a note in her voice that set the man's
heart beating furiously.                                     268

A fierce white frothing about him.                _Frontispiece_




THE CATTLE-BARON'S DAUGHTER

I

THE PORTENT


The hot weather had come suddenly, at least a month earlier than usual,
and New York lay baking under a scorching sun when Miss Hetty Torrance sat
in the coolest corner of the Grand Central Depot she could find. It was by
her own wish she had spent the afternoon in the city unattended, for Miss
Torrance was a self-reliant young woman; but it was fate and the
irregularity of the little gold watch, which had been her dead mother's
gift, that brought her to the depot at least a quarter of an hour too
soon. But she was not wholly sorry, for she had desired more solitude and
time for reflection than she found in the noisy city, where a visit to an
eminent modiste had occupied most of her leisure. There was, she had
reasons for surmising, a decision of some moment to be made that night,
and as yet she was no nearer arriving at it than she had been when the
little note then in her pocket had been handed her.

Still, it was not the note she took out when she found a seat apart from
the hurrying crowd, but a letter from her father, Torrance, the
Cattle-Baron, of Cedar Range. It was terse and to the point, as usual, and
a little smile crept into the girl's face as she read.

"Your letter to hand, and so long as you have a good time don't worry
about the bills. You'll find another five hundred dollars at the bank when
you want them. Thank God, I can give my daughter what her mother should
have had. Two years since I've seen my little girl, and now it seems that
somebody else is wanting her! Well, we were made men and