l of her sex. He began to be a
little more upon his guard in talking with her.

"No." He contented himself with the one word, only his eyes demanding
an explanation.

"I don't think much of your associates," she informed him.

"You mean Leland?"

"He is bad enough. Garth Conway is worse. They are poor sort of men
to swing a big deal."

"They are not swinging it," he said bluntly.

"You are?"

"Yes."

Again she paused, her tapering fingers drumming idly upon the glass
through which once more she was looking out upon the shining snow.

"I was coming to talk with you anyway in a day or so," she said after a
little. "I have fifty thousand dollars available. Can you use it?"

In spite of him he started. She spoke of the matter so coolly, so
indifferently. And there had never been the time yet when Sledge Hume
could not use fifty thousand dollars very readily.

"Go on," he said.

"I saw the other side first," she returned. "They have a bigger chance
than you. But there is not a man among them. If you know what you are
doing, if you know _how_ to do it, you will make and they will break.
I want to get in on the winning side. That's all."

"And if we can't make a place for you?"

"Then I'll make one for myself. I'll see the farmers again. I'll make
them organise instead of bickering. I'll swing the controlling vote
myself. If fifty thousand won't do it I'll put the rest in. And then
we'll buy you and your crowd out or we'll sell you water or you'll go
to pieces so badly that the sheriff will sell you out!"

Hume laughed. And yet he recognised swiftly that here was a woman to
reckon with, that a fresh element had entered the game he was playing.

"You have a wonderful amount of confidence," he said.

"In myself," she retorted meaningly.

"I think," he said thoughtfully, passing over her remark without
answer, "that I can make a place for you, if you've really got the
money."

"I think that you can," she assured him.

And so Helga Strawn played the first card in the game with her
relative, Sledge Hume.

The sheriff, armed with a warrant for the arrest of Wayne Shandon, and
accompanied by two deputies arrived at the Echo Creek a little before
noon. They had left their horses at the same ranch house where Hume
had stayed last night, coming on up the valley on snowshoes. They went
immediately to Martin's study, from there to the dining room, then back
to the study. Martin, Hume and