s because of the look he saw on a man's face. He went out
snatching his book from the table as he passed. On his way to the bunk
house he stopped long enough to shake his head and rub his chin.

"I'm giving odds, ten to one," he reflected, "that the Weak Sister
don't loaf around here all night counting snowflakes."

"Something has happened, Mr. Shandon," Helga said sharply.

Shandon laughed shortly and picked up his pipe.

"A great deal has happened," he told her. "I've been a fool and an
overgrown baby long enough. Let's get down to business. You can't
stay here all night."

She shrugged her shoulders.

"For want of a chaperon, I suppose? I'm not worried about what people
say or think, Mr. Shandon. And, besides, there's no place to go."

"You can't stay, any way," he answered a little roughly. "You can get
back to the Leland place. They'll keep you over night. Now, let's get
this thing straight. You hope to get back your property from Hume?"

Swiftly their roles had changed; he was dominant now, he asked his
question in a tone that demanded an answer and she gave the answer.

"Yes."

"How?"

"I can't tell you definitely. If you'll come to me in two weeks or a
month I can tell you. For one thing, Hume is a man, I am a woman."

"You are going to try to make him fall in love with you?"

"Other men have done it," she said indifferently.

"Other men are not Sledge Hume. But that is your end of it. I am
going to tie up Ruf Ettinger and any other stragglers I can get my
hands on. If you can get back the property we'll take you in. We'll
form a company, we'll pool our interests. We'll force these other
fellows to sell to us at our own figure, by the Lord! I've got the
water!"

"If I could force Sledge Hume to sell his inherited interest to me,"
she cried, "if I could make him sell to me as I sold to him, for a
wretched twenty-five thousand dollars--"

"What!" he broke in excitedly. "How much did Hume pay you?"

"Twenty-five thousand. Why?" curiously.

"_When_?"

"I remember the date exactly."

She told him. It was barely two weeks after the death of Arthur
Shandon.

Sudden suspicion in Wayne Shandon's brain had sprung full grown into
positive certainty.

"If you can't get your property back one way," was the last thing he
said, "I can get it for you in another. Helga Strawn, you had better
leave Sledge Hume to me."

CHAPTER XIX

SHANDON TAKES HIS STAND

Dart had be