e saying are lies," he cried back at her, driving his
hands into his pockets that she might not see that they were shaking.

He stared after her in wonder as she went swiftly to the table and
unlocked a drawer. He wondered more as she snatched out a folded paper
and brought it to him.

"Sign that," she said curtly. "Get it witnessed before a notary and
send it to me and Helga Strawn will forget what she knows."

A glance showed him the significance of the document. It was a deed,
properly drawn, needing but his own signature to return to Helga Strawn
the lands he had bought from her.

"So," he sneered, "you are trying a little blackmail, are you? You are
a spy and Helga Strawn's agent, I suppose?"

Again she laughed at him.

"I attend to my own business, my dear cousin," her voice very like his.
"If you hadn't been a fool you'd have known that I was Helga Strawn six
months ago. Blackmail? Call it what you like. It is your one chance
to save your neck. I know that in one of your mad fits of anger you
killed Arthur Shandon. I know that you took his money. And I am not
the only one in the country who knows or suspects it. Your chance is
slim enough as it is, Mr. Hume. Don't make it worse."

Blow after blow until the man set his muscles like iron to keep his
body from shaking as his soul shook. This was the greatest shock of
all because it struck at the keynote of his nature, this knowledge that
a woman had tricked him, that she had played with him, that now she
held him as she said so bluntly, in the hollow of her hand.

"You traitress!" he cried hoarsely. "You miserable traitress!"

And Helga Strawn laughed.

"It will take you a couple of hours to ride into El Toyon," she said.
"That will give you time to think it over. If you decide to sign the
deed and send it to me to-night I'll do my part. If I don't get the
deed to-night I'll go into town in the morning for a talk with the
district attorney. I think I've got you where I want you, Mr. Hume."

The things which Hume said to her she accepted indifferently. She had
never known that a man could find such words to utter to a woman. When
she has listened long enough she turned and went out of the room, going
upstairs and standing by her window where she could see him as he went
out. As she saw him striding down the walk toward his horse, jamming
the deed into his pocket as he went, her eyes suddenly grew wet, and
she stamped her foot angrily.