nterest be genuine when he was a party to the plot to murder Doubler? Yet
perhaps not--maybe Duncan _had_ been lying. Determined to get to the
bottom of the affair as quickly as possible, Sheila continued rapidly, her
scorn giving way to eagerness. "Don't you know?" And this time her voice
was almost a plea. "What did father visit you for? Wasn't it about
Doubler? Didn't he hire you to--to kill him?"

She saw his lips tighten strangely, his face grow pale, his eyes flash
with some mysterious emotion, and she knew in an instant that he was
guilty--guilty as her father!

"Oh!" she said, and the scorn came into her voice again. "Then it is true!
You and my father have conspired to murder an inoffensive old man!
You--you cowards!"

He winced, as though he had received an unexpected blow in the face, but
almost immediately he smiled--a hard, cold, sneering smile which chilled
her.

"Who has been telling you this?" The question came slowly, without the
slightest trace of excitement.

"Duncan told me."

"Duncan?" There was much contempt in his voice. "Not your father?"

She shook her head negatively, wondering at his cold composure. No wonder
her father had selected him!

He laughed mirthlessly. "So that's the reason Doubler was so friendly to
his rifle this morning?" he said, as though her words had explained a
mystery which had been puzzling him. "Doubler and me have been friends for
a long time. But this morning while I was talking to him he kept his rifle
beside him all the time. He must have heard from someone that I was
gunning for him."

"Then you haven't been hired to kill him?"

He smiled at her eagerness, but spoke gravely and with an earnestness
which she could not help but feel. "Miss Sheila," he said, "there isn't
money enough in ten counties like this to make me kill Doubler." His lips
curled with a quiet sarcasm. "You are like a lot of other people in this
country," he added. "Because I put Blanca away they think I am a
professional gunman. But I want _you_"--he placed a significant emphasis
on the word--"to understand that there wasn't any other way to deal with
Blanca. By coming back here after selling me that stolen Star stock and
refusing to admit the deed in the presence of other people--even denying
it and accusing me--he forced me to take the step I did with him. Even
then, I gave him his chance. That he didn't take it isn't my fault.

"I suppose I look pretty black to you, because I treated