is pony.

"If you have quite finished I believe I will be going," she said, holding
her chin high and averting her face. "I will have one of the men bring
your horse to you."

"I believe I have quite finished," he returned, mimicking her cold,
precise manner of speech.

She disdainfully refused his proffer of assistance and mounted the pony.
He stood watching her with a smile, which she saw by glancing covertly at
him while pretending to arrange the stirrup strap. When she started to
ride away without even glancing at him, she heard his voice, with its
absurd, hateful drawl:

"And she didn't even thank me," he said with mock bitterness and
disappointment.

She turned and made a grimace at him. He bowed and smiled.

"You are entirely welcome," she said.

He was standing on the edge of the quicksand, watching her, when she
reached the long rise upon which she had sat on her pony on a day some
weeks before, and when she turned he waved a hand to her. A little later
she vanished over the rise, and she had not ridden very far when she heard
the dull report of his pistol. She shivered, and rode on.

CHAPTER VIII

SHEILA FANS A FLAME

Sheila departed from the quicksand crossing nursing her wrath against the
man who had rescued her, feeling bitterly vindictive against him, yet
aware that the Dakota who had saved her life was not the Dakota whom she
had feared during her adventure with him in his cabin on the night of her
arrival in the country. He had changed, and though she assured herself
that she despised him more than ever, she found a grim amusement in the
recollection of his manner immediately following the rescue, and in a
review of the verbal battle, in which she had been badly worsted.

His glances had had in them the quality of inward mirth and satisfaction
which is most irritating, and behind his pretended remorse she could see a
pleasure over her dilemma which made her yearn to inflict punishment upon
him that would cause him to ask for mercy. His demeanor had said plainly
that if she wished to have the marriage set aside all well and good--he
would offer no objection. But neither would he take the initiative.
Decidedly, it was a matter in which she should consult her own desires.

It was late in the afternoon when she rode up to the Double R corral gates
and was met there by her father and Duncan. Langford had been worried, he
said, and was much concerned over her appearance. In the presence o