effort to control himself.

Duncan's eyes did not waver. "I reckon you _don't_ know whether I'm
lying," he returned, showing his teeth in a slight smile. "But I reckon
you're twenty-one and ought to have your eye-teeth cut. Anyway, you ought
to know that a man like Langford, who's wanting your land, don't go to
talk with a man like Dakota, who's some on the shoot, for nothing. How do
you know that Langford and Dakota ain't friends? How do you know but that
they've been friends back East? Do you know where Dakota came from? Mebbe
he's from the East, too. I'm telling you one thing," added Duncan, and now
his voice was filled with passion, "Dakota and Sheila Langford are pretty
thick. She makes believe that she don't like him, but he saved her from a
quicksand, and she's been running with him considerable. Takes his part,
too; does it, but she makes you believe that she don't like him. I reckon
she's pretty foxy."

Doubler's memory went back to a conversation he had had with Sheila in
which Dakota had been the subject under discussion. He remembered that she
had shown a decided coldness, suggesting by her manner that she and Dakota
were not on the best of terms. Could it be that she had merely pretended
this coldness? Could it be that she was concerned in the plot against him,
that she and her father and Dakota were combined against him for the
common purpose of taking his life?

He was convinced that any such suspicion against Sheila must be unjust,
for he had studied her face many times and was certain that there was not
a line of deceit in it. And yet, was it not odd that, when he had told her
of the trouble between him and her father, she had not immediately taken
her parent's side? To be sure, she had told him that Langford was merely
her stepfather, but could not that statement also have been a misleading
one? And even if Langford were only her stepfather, would she not have
felt it her duty to align herself with him?

"I reckon you know a heap about Dakota, don't you?" came Duncan's voice,
breaking into Doubler's reflections. "You know, for instance, that Dakota
came here from Dakota--or anyway, he says he came here from there. We'll
say you know that. But what do you know about Langford? Didn't he tell you
that he was going to 'get' you?"

Duncan turned his back to Doubler and walked to his pony. He drew out his
six-shooter, stuck it into its holster, and placed one foot in a stirrup,
preparatory to mounting. T