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that was true. But he was thinking about asking Palmer. The man had said last night that he was looking to invest more. “I wish we could. You do know that was part of the family land when Grandma and Grandpa came out here.”
    “I know.” He looked out over the cattle grazing in the deep field. “I want to run it. I mean…the land butts up to this ranch, right? I could run the cattle there and help here. There’s a nice house there too. Might take Darin with me and lessen the strain on this house. Aunt Georgie was right, we should have moved out long ago.”
    “How will you swing…Palmer?” Jace nodded. “That’ll be a big investment on his part even at the lower cost. What do you have to trade him for?”
    He thought his brother was going to tell him to take the daughter and he’d be set, but that’s not what he wanted. And when Mason didn’t suggest it, he felt reasonably better about what he needed to say.
    “I’m not a prize. I don’t have any money, nothing of my own. And I’m pretty sure that even if I could make a go at this, I’m just a dirt poor rancher that will never be able to support his daughter in the style that she lives now. I was thinking….” He looked out again instead of at Mason. “I was thinking that if he lent me the money, I’d guarantee that I’d never bother his little girl again.”
    “You think he wants that?” Jace nodded. “I don’t. And you heard him last night. When he married Holly’s mom, he didn’t have as much as we do. I think you’re dead wrong on that.”
    The dinner bell gonged behind them. Jace leapt off the fence and waited for Mason to get down and come with him. He had a plan worked out in his head, and no matter what Mason or Palmer said he knew that Holly would never stoop to living with a man like him. No matter if they were mates or not.
    “I would like for you to go and give her your part of the billing. I’m serious when I tell you that we have to get this resolved. If not for us, then the other ranches around. All you have to do is give her an accounting of what you’ve spent and how much of it was charged.” Jace was nodding before he could think of a way out of it. “Good. This afternoon. I know you have the day off, and since the milker on line two is down, Logan can work on it without the two of you getting into trouble.”
    Jace grinned. “But getting into trouble with Logan is what I live for. He’s so…you know how he is when he gets irritated. And I have so much to get on his nerves about. We love to get into trouble. You know that.”
    “I do. And that’s why I’m sending you away.” Jace only laughed. He’d have to get his digs into his brother before he left. It might make him smile on an otherwise dreary day. “Jace? Are you going to behave yourself?”
    “Of course I am.” But as soon as he entered the house to eat, he noticed that not only was Logan missing, but so was Gerard. The milker wasn’t the only thing that was down.
    They had one hundred stalls that could milk all their cows in less than two hours; when they were all working, that was. Lately it had been an uphill battle to get even half of them working, and those generally had to be fiddled with for a bit to make them cooperate. They couldn’t find the parts anymore because of things being so old, and even when they could purchase them, they were so expensive that they rarely got anything but more problems. If things didn’t change soon, they’d be selling their cattle for less than eight cents on the dollar, if the bank didn’t try and take the ranch again.
    The teat-cups, or a shell and liner device, did all the work. They were attached to each of the teats on a cow and “milked” them. Each cup was attached to a milk tube, a pulse tube, and a pulsator…a vacuum pump or a blower. A recorder jar, or a milk meter, kept track of how much each cow gave daily. They didn’t have the fancy computer system to measure and record each cow’s production,