y.

"Count it, Miss Bransford," said Sanderson when Dale had disgorged the
money.

The two men stood silent as the girl fingered the bills. At last she
looked at Sanderson and nodded.

The latter grinned. "Everything's regular, now," he said. He looked
at Mary. "Do you want him killed, ma'am? He'd be a lot better off
dead. You'd be better off, too. This kind of a skunk is always
around, botherin' women--when there ain't no men around."

Mary shook her head with a decisive negative.

"Then he won't die, right now," said Sanderson. "He'll pull his
freight away from the Double A, though, ma 'am. An' he'll never come
back."

He was talking to Dale through the girl, and Dale watched him, scowling.

"If he does come back, you'll tell me, won't you, ma'am? An' then
there'll never be an Alva Dale to bother you again--or to go around
robbin' honest men, an' tryin' to get them mixed up with the law."

And now he turned from the girl and spoke to Dale:

"You go right back to Okar an' tell Maison an' Silverthorn what has
happened here tonight. Show them how the fear of God has got into your
heart an' made you yearn to practice the principles of a square deal.
Tell them that they'd better get to goin' straight, too, for if they
don't there's a guy which was named after a square deal that is goin'
to snuff them off this hemisphere middlin' rapid. That's all. You'd
better hit the breeze right back to Okar an' spread the good news."

He stood, a grim smile on his face, watching Dale as the latter walked
to the door. When Dale stepped out on the porch Sanderson followed
him, still regarding the movements of the other coldly and alertly.

Mary heard them--their steps on the boards of the porch; she heard the
saddle leather creak as Dale climbed on his horse; she heard the sound
of the hoofbeats as the horse clattered out of the ranchhouse yard.

And then for several minutes she stood near the little table in the
room, listening vainly for some sound that would tell her of the
presence of Sanderson on the porch. None came.

At last, when she began to feel certain that he had gone to the
bunkhouse, she heard a step on the porch and saw Sanderson standing in
the doorway.

He grinned at her, meeting her gaze fairly.

"Dale told you a heap of truth, ma'am," he said. "I feel more like a
man tonight than I've felt for a good many days--an' nights."

"Then it was true--as Dale said--that you are not my brother?