And he's got a little money of his own that he's
been tucking away all these years of working for Packard. He comes
over this evening, Teresa, my dear, and makes us a--curse it, a
generous offer. You see, as things are, we are bound to lose the whole
place, lock, stock, and barrel, to Packard; you don't want to do that,
do you?"
"Go on," said Terry. Her face was suddenly as white as the hands from
which she was swiftly, nervously stripping her gauntlets. "Just what
is Blenham's generous offer, Dad?"
"It's one of two things."
He hesitated and licked his lips. Terry's heart sank lower yet; it
took him so long to set the thing into words! "You see, as Old Man
Packard's foreman and agent he comes to tell us that he is ordered to
foreclose; to break us utterly. As a friend to us he says----"
"For God's sake!" cried Terry sharply. "What does he say?"
"He will pay us a thousand dollars to let him take over everything! He
will assume the mortgage; he will scrap it out with old Packard; he
will clear the title; and, if we get where we want the ranch back some
time, he will let us buy him out for just what he has put in it."
Terry looked at him gravely.
"In words of one syllable," she said quietly, "Blenham plans to give
you one thousand dollars; then to pay to old Packard the seven thousand
you owe him; and for this amount of eight thousand to grab an outfit
that is worth twenty thousand if it's worth a nickel! That's his
generous offer, is it?"
"My dear----"
"Don't my dear me!" she snapped impatiently.
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