itness against Dakota; desired her to
participate in his scheme to fasten upon the latter the entire blame for
the commission of a crime in which he himself was the moving factor.

"I shall not bear witness against him," she told Langford coldly. "For I
am going away--back East--to-morrow. Don't imagine that I have been in
complete ignorance of what has been going on; that I have been unaware of
the part you have played in the shooting of Doubler. I have known for
quite a long while that you had decided to have Doubler murdered, and only
recently I learned that you hired Dakota to kill him. And this morning,
when I met Dakota on the river trail, he dropped this from a pocket of his
vest." She fumbled at her bodice and produced the signed agreement,
holding it out to him.

As she expected, he repudiated it, though his face paled a little as he
read it.

"This is a forgery, my dear," he said, in the old, smooth, even voice that
she had grown to despise.

"No," she returned calmly, "it is not a forgery. You forget that only a
minute ago you practically admitted it to be a true agreement by telling
me that I should have allowed Doubler to die. You are an accomplice in the
shooting of Doubler, and if I am compelled to testify in Dakota's trial I
shall tell everything I know."

She watched while he lighted a match, held it to the paper, smiling as the
licking flames consumed it. He was entirely composed now, and through the
gathering darkness of the interior of the office she saw a sneer come into
his face.

"I shall do all I can to assist you to discontinue the associations which
are so distasteful to you. You will start for the East immediately, I
presume?"

"To-morrow," she said. "In the afternoon. I shall have my trunks taken
over to Lazette in the morning."

"In the morning?" said Langford, puzzled. "Why not ride over with them, in
the afternoon, in the buckboard?"

"I shall ride my pony. The man can return him." She took a step toward the
door, but halted before reaching it, turning to look back at him.

"I don't think it is necessary for me to say good-by. But you have not
treated me badly in the past, and I thank you--for that--and wish you
well."

"Where are you going?"

Sheila had walked to the door and stood with one hand on the latch. He
came and stood beside her, a suppressed excitement in his manner, his eyes
gleaming brightly in the dusk which had suddenly fallen.

"I think I told you that befo