it.
They washed the dishes together, and from that hour their relations, to
all outward appearance, were friendly or at least devoid of open
hostility. They no longer ate separately; she did not avoid him during
the day, and the second evening she prepared two places at her own
table in the big living room before the fireplace.

"It's so empty out there," she explained.

"With only the two of us at a table built for twenty."

He lingered for an hour's chat before her fire and each evening
thereafter was the same. But he knew that she was merely struggling to
make the best of a matter that was distasteful, that her opinion of him
was unaltered. Her bitterness could not be entirely concealed, and she
frequently touched on some fresh point that added to her distrust of
his present motives and confirmed her belief in his double-dealing in
the past. There were so many of these points; his refusal to accept
her offer to give him his half-interest if he would stay off the place;
his weak insinuations that there was some reason why he must spend two
years on the Three Bar; his prowling the country for a year spying on
the methods she followed in running the outfit, half of which would
soon be his; his buying the school section and filing on a quarter of
land, the location blocking the lower end of the Three Bar valley.
Whenever she mentioned one of these he refused to take issue with her.
And one night she touched on still another point.

"What was the reason for your first idea--of coming here under another
name?" she demanded.

"I thought maybe others knew I'd been left a part interest," he said,
"and it might be embarrassing. The way it is, with only the two of us
knowing the inside, I can stay on as a regular hand until the time is
up."

"You're so plausible," she said. "You put it as a favor to me. Did it
ever strike you that if the truth were known it might also be
uncomfortable for you?"

He smiled across at her and once more she frowned as she discovered
that he was likeable for all his underhandedness.

"Worse than that--suicidal," he admitted.

"If you mentioned what you think of me, that I've framed to rob you by
law, you wouldn't be bothered with me for long." He laughed softly and
stretched his feet toward the fire. "Look at it any way you like and
I'm in bad shape to deal you any misery," he pointed out. "If you'd
drop a hint that I'm an unwelcome addition it would only be a matter of
days un