d with very pleasurable anticipation to enforcing his claim
upon the Range. In the meanwhile he was unobtrusively watching Hawtrey's
face, and it had become evident that in another moment or two his victim
would adopt the course suggested, when there was a rattle of wheels
outside. Edmonds, who saw a broncho team and a a wagon appear from behind
the barn, realized that he must decide the matter without delay.

"As I want to reach Lander's before it's dark I'll have to get on," he
said carelessly. "If you'll give me a letter to the broker, I'll send it
to him."

Next moment a clear voice rose somewhere outside.

"I guess you needn't worry," it said, "I'll go right in."

Then Sally walked into the room.

Edmonds was disconcerted, but bowed, and then sat down again, quietly
determined to wait, for he discovered that there was hostility in the
swift glance she flashed at him.

"That's quite a smart team you were driving, Miss Creighton," he
remarked.

Sally, who disregarded this, turned to Hawtrey.

"What's he doing here?" she asked.

"He came over on a little matter of business," answered Hawtrey.

"You have been selling wheat again?"

Hawtrey looked embarrassed, for her manner was not conciliatory. "Well,"
he admitted, "I have sold some."

"Wheat you haven't got?"

Hawtrey did not answer, and Sally sat down. Her manner suggested that
she meant thoroughly to investigate the matter, and Edmonds, who would
have greatly preferred to get rid of her, decided that as it appeared
impossible he would appeal to her cupidity. The Creightons were grasping
folk, and he had heard of her engagement to Hawtrey.

"If you will permit me I'll try to explain," he said. "We'll say that
you have reason for believing that wheat will go down and you tell a
broker to sell it forward at a price a little below the actual one. If
other people do the same it drops faster, and before you have to deliver
you can buy it in at less than you sold it at. A great deal of money can
be picked up that way."

"It looks easy," Sally agreed, with something in her manner which led
him to fancy he might win her over. "Of course, prices have been
falling. Gregory has been selling down?"

"He has. In fact, there's already a big margin to his credit," declared
Edmonds unsuspectingly.

"That is, if he bought in now he'd have cleared--several thousand
dollars?"

Edmonds told her exactly how much, and then started in sudden
consternation with rage