" said the
girl. She was trying to make her voice sound severe, but only
succeeded in making it quaver.

"I ain't your brother."

"And you came here to try to take the ranch away from me--to steal it?"

He flushed. "You've got four thousand of my money there, ma'am.
You're to keep it. Mebbe that will help to show what my intentions
were. About the rest--your brother an' all--I'll have to tell you.
It's a thing you ought to know, an' I don't know what's been keepin' me
from tellin' you all along.

"Mebbe it was because I was scared you'd take it hard. But since these
sneaks have got to waggin' their tongues it'll have to be told. If you
sit down by the table there, I'll tell you why I done what I did."

She took a chair beside the table and faced him, and, standing before
her, speaking very gently, but frankly, he related what had occurred to
him in the desert. She took it calmly, though there were times when
her eyes glowed with a light that told of deep emotion. But she soon
became resigned to the death of her brother and was able to listen to
Sanderson's story of his motive in deceiving her.

When he related his emotion during their first meeting--when he had
told Dale that he was her brother, after yielding to the appeal in her
eyes--she smiled.

"There was some excuse for it, after all," she declared.

"An' you ain't blamin' me--so much?" he asked.

"No," she said. She blushed as she thought of the times she had kissed
him. He was thinking of her kisses, too, and as their eyes met, each
knew what the other was thinking about. Sanderson smiled at her and
her eyes dropped.

"It wasn't a square deal for me to take them, then, ma'am," he told
her. "But I'm goin' to stay around here an' fight Dale an' his friends
to a finish. That is, if you want me to stay. I'd like a straight
answer. I ain't hangin' around where I ain't wanted."

Her eyes glowed as she looked at him.

"You'll have to stay, now," she said. "Will is dead, and you will have
to stay here and brazen it out. They'd take the Double A from me
surely, if you were to desert me. You will have to stay and insist
that you are my brother!"

"That's a contract," he agreed. "But"--he looked at her, a flush on
his face--"goin' back to them kisses. It wasn't a square deal. But
I'm hopin' that a day will come----"

She got up, her face very red. "It is nearly morning," she interrupted.

"Yes," he smiled; "things are only beginnin'