quickly down from the saddle, seized her by the waist,
disengaged her hands from the bridle rein, and picking her up bodily
carried her, struggling and fighting and striking blindly at his face, to
the side of the trail. When he set her down he pinned her arms to her
sides. He did not speak, and she was entirely helpless in his grasp, but
when he released his grasp of her arms and tried to leave her she seized
the collar of his vest. With a grim laugh he slipped out of the garment,
leaving it dangling from her hand.

"Keep it for me, ma'am," he said with a cold chuckle. "But get back to
Doubler's cabin and see what you can do for him. You'll be able to do a
lot. I'll be back with the doctor before sundown."

In an instant he was at his pony's side, mounting with the animal at a
run, and in a brief space had vanished around a turn in the trail, leaving
a cloud of dust to mark the spot where Sheila had seen him disappear.

For a long time Sheila stood beside the trail, looking at the spot where
he had disappeared, holding his vest with an unconscious grasp. Looking
down she saw it and with an exclamation of rage threw it from her,
watching it fall into the sand. But after an instant she went over and
took it up, recovering, at the same time, a black leather pocket memoranda
which had slipped out of it. She put the memoranda back into one of the
pockets, handling both the book and the vest gingerly, for she felt an
aversion to touching them. She conquered this feeling long enough to tuck
the vest into the slicker behind the saddle, and then she mounted and sent
her pony up the trail toward Doubler's cabin.

She found Doubler where she had left him, and he was still unconscious.
The water pail was empty and she went down to the river and refilled it,
returning to the cabin and again bathing and bandaging Doubler's wound,
and placing a fresh cloth on his forehead.

For a time she sat watching the injured man, revolving the incident of her
discovery of him in her mind, going over and over again the gruesome
details. She did not dwell long on the latter, for she could not prevent
her mind reviewing Dakota's words and actions--his satanic cleverness in
pretending to be on the verge of taking her into his confidence, his
prediction that she would understand when this "business" was over. She
did not need to wait, she understood now!

Finding the silence in the cabin irksome, she rose, placed Doubler's head
in a more comfort