she 'd been one of his favorite people ever since he was just a boy and she and her husband , thomas stone , a hired hand , lived at the double-bar-k. back in those days when life on the ranch got too much for luke , between his brothers ' scrapping and bickering and his father 's legendary bouts of temper , he 'd escape to the little log house on the edge of the property the stones had rented-a house that had long since been torn down .