question was as sudden as a sword thrust.

"No," he answered.

"Have they made you an offer for the water right?"

"No."

"That's funny." She frowned thoughtfully at him a moment, saying in a
barely audible tone as though she were thinking aloud, "You don't look
as though you were lying. Well, you expect an offer, don't you?"

"Yes."

"And when it comes, coming from Hume, you realise that he'll offer a
very small fraction of what it is worth to him?"

"I suppose so. That's business."

"And, above all things in the world, Sledge Hume is a business man!
Well, I won't ask what you'd do when the offer came, as you'd say that
it was none of my affair. I've seen Ruf Ettinger and learned all he
knows."

He did not answer; he had suddenly resolved to see the drift of Helga
Strawn's thoughts before he did a great deal of talking.

"I have learned," came another of her abrupt thrusts, "that you and
Hume are about as friendly as a cat and a dog."

He merely looked at her enquiringly, drawing thoughtfully at his pipe.
She smiled, turned from him back to the fire, settling a little more
comfortably in her chair.

"Hume is a crook." She said it calmly, dispassionately, positively.
"It is in his blood. He couldn't help it if he tried. He isn't the
kind to try. The deal he put over with me may have been nothing but
clever business. On the other hand, considering that I was a relative,
considering that there was going to be plenty of boodle for everybody,
some people might say that there was an element of dishonesty in it.
But what I am getting at is that the man in unscrupulous. Now, he's in
the biggest business deal of his life. Chances in that sort of thing
for crooked work are many. Ergo, Mr. Shandon, it's a fair bet that
starting with a crooked deal he has gone on playing a crooked game. Do
you begin to see why I'm here?"

"Blackmail?" he said bluntly.

"Yes," she said coolly. "There's no use quarrelling over a name."

"If you imagine that I know anything about the man's private history--"

"You've quarrelled openly with him. Everybody knows about it. What
was the reason for your quarrel?"

"Really, Miss Strawn---"

"Why can't you talk to me as if I were a man?" she flared out at him,
the sudden heat from a woman who had been ice a moment ago taking him
by surprise. "I'm not dragging my sex into this like a buckler to hide
behind. Why can't you say it's none of my damned business, if you fee