I am accepting
that proposition, though," he added. "I've been wanting to leave
here--I've got tired of it. And"--he continued with a mysterious
smile--"if things turn out as I expect, you'll be glad to have me go." He
rose from the bench. "Let's write that agreement," he suggested.

They entered the cabin, and a few minutes later Dakota sat again on the
box in the lee of the cabin wall, mending his saddle, the signed agreement
in his pocket. Smiling, Langford rode the river trail, satisfied with the
result of his visit. Turning once--as he reached the rise upon which
Sheila had halted that morning after leaving Dakota's cabin, Langford
looked back. Dakota was still busy with his saddle. Langford urged his
pony down the slope of the rise and vanished from view. Then Dakota ceased
working on the saddle, drew out the signed agreement and read it through
many times.

"That man," he said finally, looking toward the crest of the slope where
Langford had disappeared, "thinks he has convinced me that I ought to kill
my best friend. He hasn't changed a bit--not a damned bit!"

CHAPTER X

DUNCAN ADDS TWO AND TWO

Had Langford known that there had been a witness to his visit to Dakota he
might not have ridden away from the latter's cabin so entirely satisfied
with the result of his interview.

Duncan had been much interested in Langford's differences with Doubler. He
had agitated the trouble, and he fully expected Langford to take him into
his confidence should any aggressive movement be contemplated. He had even
expected to be allowed to plan the details of the scheme which would have
as its object the downfall of the nester, for thus he hoped to satisfy his
personal vengeance against the latter.

But since the interview with Doubler at Doubler's cabin, Langford had been
strangely silent regarding his plans. Not once had he referred to the
nester, and his silence had nettled Duncan. Langford had ignored his
hints, had returned monosyllabic replies to his tentative questions,
causing the manager to appear to be an outsider in an affair in which he
felt a vital interest.

It was annoying, to say the least, and Duncan's nature rebelled against
the slight, whether intentional or accidental. He had waited patiently
until the morning following his conversation with Langford about Dakota,
certain that the Double R owner would speak, but when after breakfast the
next morning Langford had ridden away without breaking his