he smile, "you and me. The parson will
tie the knot."

"This is a joke, I suppose?" she said scornfully, attempting a lightness
that she did not feel; "a crude one, to be sure, for you certainly cannot
be serious."

"I was never more serious in my life," he said slowly. "We are to be
married when the parson comes in."

"How do you purpose to accomplish this?" she jeered. "The parson certainly
will not perform a marriage ceremony without the consent of--without my
consent."

"I think," he said coldly, "that you will consent. I am not in a trifling
mood. Just now it pleases me to imagine that I am an instrument of Fate.
Maybe that sounds mysterious to you, but some day you will be able to see
just how logical it all seems to me now, that Fate has sent me a pawn--a
subject, if you please--to sacrifice, that the game which I have been
playing may be carried to its conclusion."

Outside they heard the dog bark, heard the parson speak to it.

"The parson is coming," said Sheila, her joy over the impending
interruption showing in her eyes.

"Yes, he is coming." Still with his back to the door, Dakota deliberately
drew out one of his heavy pistols and examined it minutely, paying no
attention to Sheila. Her eyes widened with fear as the hand holding the
weapon dropped to his side and he looked at her again.

"What are you doing to do?" she demanded, watching these forbidding
preparations with dilated eyes.

"That depends," he returned with a chilling laugh. "Have you ever seen a
man die? No?" he continued as she shuddered. "Well, if you don't consent
to marry me you will see the parson die. I have decided to give you the
choice, ma'am," he went on in a quiet, determined voice, entirely free
from emotion. "Sacrifice yourself and the parson lives; refuse and I shoot
the parson down the instant he steps inside the door."

"Oh!" she cried in horror, taking a step toward him and looking into his
eyes for evidence of insincerity--for the slightest sign that would tell
her that he was merely trying to scare her. "Oh! you--you coward!" she
cried, for she saw nothing in his eyes but cold resolution.

He smiled with straight lips. "You see," he mocked, "how odd it is? Fate
is shuffling us three in this game. You have your choice. Do you care to
be responsible for the death of a fellow being?"

For a tense instant she looked at him, and seeing the hard, inexorable
glitter in his eyes she cringed away from him and sank to the