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Updated: May 20, 2025
She wondered if he had seen Dakota; if he knew that the latter had already attempted to carry out the agreement to "Persuade Doubler to leave the county." "Ride far?" he questioned, turning and facing her, his voice casual. "Not very far." "The river trail?" Sheila nodded, and saw a sudden interest flash into his eyes. "Which way?" he asked quickly. "Down," she returned.
To my knowledge there are only two men with shacks around here, and they're mostly of no account. One of them is Doubler Ben Doubler who hangs out near Two Forks, and the other is a fellow who calls himself Dakota, who's got a shack about twenty miles down the Ute, a little off the Lazette trail." "They are ranchers, I suppose?"
Doubler stood in the open doorway, looking after Dakota, and when the latter finally disappeared around a bend in the river the nester turned and saw Duncan. Instantly he stepped inside the cabin door, reappearing immediately, holding a rifle. Duncan continued to ride forward, raising one hand, with the palm toward Doubler, as a sign of the peacefulness of his intentions.
She opened the door and stepped down into the darkness. There was a moon, and the trail to the river was light enough for her to see plainly, but when she reached the timber clump in which Doubler had said Duncan had been hiding, she shuddered and made a detour to avoid passing close to it.
"I reckon it's something to be glad for," smiled Doubler, misunderstanding her elation, "but I reckon I owe it to you I'd have pulled my freight sure, if you hadn't come when you did. An' I told you not to be comin' here any more." He laughed. "Ain't it odd how things turn out sometimes. I'd have died sure," he repeated. "You are going to live a long while," she said.
"Yes, clear," said Allen. "The evidence is all against him." Yet it was not all quite clear to Langford. To be sure, he had expected to receive news that Dakota had accomplished the destruction of Doubler, but he had not anticipated the fortunate appearance of Duncan at the nester's cabin during the commission of the murder, nor had he expected Sheila to be near the scene of the crime.
And then, to his surprise, she bent over and kissed his forehead, leaving his side instantly, her cheeks aflame, her eyes alight with a mysterious fire. To conceal her emotion from Doubler she seized the water pail. "I will get some fresh water," she said, with a quick, smiling glance at him. "You'll want a fresh drink, and your bandages must be changed."
She took a step forward and seized his pony's bridle rein, her eyes blazing with wrath over the thought that he should attempt to deceive her with so bald a ruse. "For the doctor," he said shortly. "This is no time for melodramatics, ma'am, if Doubler is badly hurt. Will you please let go of that bridle?"
But on the morrow she had returned, determined to discover something of Dakota, to learn something of his history since coming into the country, or at the least to see if she could not induce Doubler to disclose his real name. She was unsuccessful.
"That's evasion," she said, looking straight at him, hoping that he would relent and speak. "Is it?" In his unwavering eyes she saw a glint of grim humor. "Well, that's the answer. I am not going to kill Doubler if it will do you any good to know. I don't kill my friends." "Then," she said eagerly, catching at the hope which he held out to her, "father didn't hire you to kill him?
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