fine revenge if he should force the woman to marry him, for
he figured that it would be a blow at the father's pride. If it hadn't
been for a cowardly parson and the whiskey the marriage would never have
occurred--Ned Keegles would not have thought of it. But he didn't hurt the
woman; she left him pure as she came--mentally and physically."

Langford slowly rose from his chair, his lips twitching, his face working
strangely, his eyes wide and glaring.

"You say she married him--Ned Keegles?" he said, his voice high keyed and
shrill. He turned to Sheila after catching Dakota's nod. "Is this true?"
he demanded sharply. "Did you marry him as this man says you did?"

"Yes; I married him," returned Sheila dully, and Langford sank limply into
his chair.

Dakota smiled with flashing eyes and continued:

"Keegles married the woman," he said coldly, "because he thought she was
Langford's real daughter." He looked at Sheila with a glance of
compassion. "Later, when Keegles discovered that the woman was only
Langford's stepdaughter, he was mighty sorry. Not for Langford, however,
because he could not consider Langford's feelings. And in spite of what he
had done he was still determined to secure revenge.

"One day Langford came to Keegles with a proposal. He had seen Keegles
kill one man, and he wanted to hire him to kill another--a man named
Doubler. Keegles agreed, for the purpose of getting Langford into----"

Dakota hesitated, for Langford had risen to his feet and stood looking at
him, his eyes bulging, his face livid.

"You!" he said, in a choking, wailing voice; "you--you, are Ned Keegles!
You--you---- Why----" he hesitated and passed a hand uncertainly over his
forehead, looking from Sheila to Dakota with glazed eyes. "You--you are a
liar!" he suddenly screamed, his voice raised to a maniacal pitch. "It
isn't so! You--both of you--have conspired against me!"

"Wait!" Dakota got to his feet, walked to a shelf, and took down a small
glass, a pair of shears, a shaving cup, and a razor. While Langford
watched, staring at him with fearful, wondering eyes, Dakota deftly
snipped off the mustache with the shears, lathered his lip, and shaved it
clean. Then he turned and confronted Langford.

The latter looked at him with one, long, intense gaze, and then with a dry
sob which caught in his throat and seemed to choke him, he covered his
face with his hands, shuddered convulsively, and without a sound pitched
forward, face