o _that_ hurts, eh? Well, here's more of the
same kind. We got Barney Owen drunk last sight, and he admitted that
he'd signed all of Sanderson's papers--the papers that were supposed to
have been signed by your brother. Why didn't Sanderson sign them?
Why? Because Sanderson couldn't do it.

"Owen, who knew your brother in Arizona, signed them, because he knew
how to imitate your brother's writing. Get that! Owen signed a bank
receipt for the money old Bransford had in the bank. Owen got it and
gave it to me. He was so drunk he didn't know what he was doing, but
he could imitate your brother's writing, all right."

"You've got the money?" gasped the girl.

Again Dale laughed, mockingly. "Yep," he said, "I've got it. Three
thousand two hundred. And I've got four thousand that belongs to that
four-flusher, Square Deal. Seven thousand." He laughed again.

"Where is Sanderson?" questioned the girl.

"In jail, over in Okar." Dale paused long enough to enjoy the girl's
distress. Then he continued: "Owen is in jail, too, by this time.
Silverthorn and Maison are not taking any chances on letting him go
around loose."

"Sanderson in jail!" gasped Mary. She seemed to droop; she staggered
to a chair and sank into it, still looking at Dale, despair in her eyes.

Dale got up and walked to a point directly in front of her, looking
down at her, triumphantly.

"That's what," he said. "In jail. Moreover, that's where they'll stay
until this thing is settled. We mean to have the Double A. The sooner
you realize that, the easier it will be for you.

"I'm offering you a way out of it--an easy way. That guy, Sanderson,
ain't on the level. He's been working you, making a monkey of
you--fooling you. He wants the Double A for himself. He's been
hanging around here, passing himself off as your brother, aiming to get
on the good side of you--getting you to love him good and hard. Then
mebbe he'd tell you, thinking that you'd forgive him. But mebbe that
wasn't his game at all. Mebbe he'd figured to grab the ranch and turn
you out.

"Now, I'm offering you a whole lot. Mebbe you've thought I was sweet
on that Nyland girl. Get that out of your mind. I was only fooling
with her--like any man fools with a girl. I want her ranch--that's
all. But I don't care a damn about the Double A, I want you. I've had
my eye on you right along. Mebbe it won't be marriage right away,
but----"

"Alva Dale!"

The girl w