gles
went to Dakota--where I was. He was eighteen and wasn't very strong, as
young men go. But he got a job punching cows and I got to know him pretty
well--used to bunk with him. He took a liking to me because I took an
interest in him.

"He didn't like the work, because he had been raised differently. He lived
in Albany before he went West. His father, William Keegles, was in the
hardware business with a man named Langford--David Dowd Langford. You see,
I couldn't be mistaken in the name of the man; it's such an uncommon
one."

He smiled significantly at Sheila, and an odd expression came into her
face, for she remembered that on the night of her coming he had made the
same remark.

"One day Ned Keegles got sick and took me into his confidence. He wasn't
in the West for his health, he said. He was a fugitive from the law,
accused of murdering his father. It wasn't a nice story to hear, but he
told it, thinking he was going to die."

Dakota smiled enigmatically at Sheila and coldly at the now shrinking man
seated in the chair beside the fireplace.

"One day Keegles went into his father's office. His father's partner,
David Dowd Langford, was there, talking to his father. They'd had hard
words. Keegle's father had discovered that Langford had appropriated a
large sum of the firm's money. By forging his partner's signature he had
escaped detection until one day when the elder Keegles had accidentally
discovered the fraud--which was the day on which Ned Keegles visited his
father. It isn't necessary to go into detail, but it was perfectly plain
that Langford was guilty.

"There were hard words, as I have said. The elder Keegles threatened to
prosecute. Langford seized a sample knife that had been lying on the elder
Keegle's desk, and stabbed him, killing him instantly. Then, while Ned
Keegles stood by, stunned by the suddenness of the attack, Langford coolly
walked to a telephone and notified the police of the murder. Hanging up
the receiver, he raised the hue and cry, and a dozen clerks burst into the
office, to find Ned Keegles bending over his father, trying to withdraw
the knife.

"Langford accused Ned Keegles of the murder. He protested, of course, but
seeing that the evidence was against him, he fought his way out of the
office and escaped. He went to Dakota--where I met him." He hesitated and
looked steadily at Langford. "Do you see how the trails have crossed? The
crooked one and the straight one?"

Lan