his clash with Dakota.

"Well, no," admitted Duncan grudgingly.

Sheila was surprised at the satisfaction she felt over this admission.
Perhaps Duncan read her face as she had read his, for he frowned.

"Him and Blanca framed up--making believe that Blanca had sold him the
Star brand," he said venomously.

"I don't believe it!" Sheila's eyes met Duncan's and the latter's wavered.
She was not certain which gave her the thrill she felt--her defense of
Dakota or Duncan's bitter rage over the exhibition of that defense.

"He doesn't appear to me to be the sort of man who would steal cows," she
said with a smile which made Duncan's teeth show. "Although," she
continued significantly, "it does seem that he is the sort of man I would
not care to trifle with--if I were a man. You told me yourself, if you
remember, that you were not taking any chances with him. And now you
accuse him. If I were you," she warned, "I would be more careful--I would
keep from saying things which I could not prove."

"Meaning that I'm afraid of him, I reckon?" sneered Duncan.

Sheila looked at him, her eyes alight with mischief. That day on the edge
of the butte overlooking the river, when Duncan had talked about Dakota,
she had detected in his manner an inclination to belittle the latter;
several times since then she had heard him speak venomously of him, and
she had suspected that all was not smooth between them. And now since
Duncan had related the story of the calf incident she was certain that the
relations between the two men were strained to the point of open rupture.
Duncan had bothered her, had annoyed her with his attentions, had adopted
toward her an air of easy familiarity, which she had deeply resented, and
she yearned to humiliate him deeply.

"Afraid?" She appeared to hesitate. "Well, no," she said, surveying him
with an appraising eye in which the mischief was partly concealed, "I do
not believe that you are afraid. Perhaps you are merely careful where he
is concerned. But I am certain that even if you were afraid of him you
would not refuse to take his pony back. I promised to send it back, you
know."

A deep red suddenly suffused Duncan's face. A sharp, savage gleam in his
eyes--which Sheila met with a disarming smile--convinced her that he was
aware of her object. She saw also that he did not intend to allow her to
force him to perform the service.

He bowed and regarded her with a shallow smile.

"I will have one of t