ortunity to shoot first. Wasn't that fair?"

It seemed odd to her that she was defending the man who had wronged her,
yet strangely enough she discovered that defending him gave her a thrill
of satisfaction, though she assured herself that the satisfaction came
from the fact that she was engaged in the task of arousing Duncan's
jealousy.

"You've been inquiring about him, then?" said Duncan, his face dark with
rage and hatred. "What I told you about that calf deal is the story that
Dakota himself tells about it. A lot of people in this country don't
believe Dakota's story. They believe what I believe, that Dakota and
Blanca were in partnership on that deal, and that Dakota framed up that
story about Blanca selling out to him to avert suspicion. It's likely that
they wised up to the fact that we were on to them."

"I believe you mentioned your suspicions to Dakota himself, didn't you?
The day you went over after the calves? You had quite a talk with him
about them, didn't you?" said Sheila, sweetly.

Duncan's face whitened. "Who told you that?" he demanded.

"And he told you that if you ever interfered with him again, or that if he
heard of you repeating your suspicions to anyone, he would do something to
you--run you out of the country, or something like that, didn't he?"

"Who told you that?" repeated Duncan.

"Doubler told me," returned Sheila with a smile.

Duncan's face worked with impotent wrath as he looked at her. "So
Doubler's been gassing again?" he said with a sneer. "Well, there's never
been any love lost between Doubler and me, and so what he says don't
amount to much." He laughed oddly. "It's strange to think how thick you
are with Doubler," he said. "I understand that your dad and Doubler ain't
exactly on a friendly footing, that your dad was trying to buy him out and
that he won't sell. There's likely to be trouble, for your dad is
determined to get Doubler's land."

However, that was a subject upon which Sheila did not care to dwell.

"I don't think that I am interested in that," she said. "I presume that
father is able to take care of his own affairs without any assistance from
me."

Duncan's eyes lighted with interest. Her words showed that she was aware
of Langford's differences with the nester. Probably her father had told
her--taking her into his confidence while ignoring his manager. Perhaps he
had even told her of his visit to Dakota; perhaps there had been more than
one visit and Shei