LITMIR.BIZ

      Chapter IX. Strictly Business

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      For two or three quiet weeks Sheila did not see much of Duncan, and her father bothered her very little. Several nights on the gallery of the ranchhouse she had seen the two men sitting very close together, and on one or two occasions she had overheard scraps of conversation carried on between them in which Doubler’s name was mentioned.

      She remembered Doubler as one of the nesters whom Duncan had mentioned that day on the butte overlooking the river, and though her father and Duncan had a perfect right to discuss him, it seemed to Sheila that there had been a serious note in their voices when they had mentioned his name.

      She had become acquainted with Doubler. Since discontinuing her rides with her father and Duncan she had gone out every day alone, though she was careful to avoid any crossing in the river which looked the least suspicious. Such crossings as she could ford were few, and for that reason she was forced to ride most of the time to the Two Forks, where there was an excellent shallow, with long slopes sweeping up to the plains on both sides.

      The first time that she crossed at the Two Forks she had come upon a small adobe cabin situated a few hundred yards back from the water’s edge.

      Sheila would have fled from the vicinity, for there was still fresh in her mind a recollection of another cabin in which she had once passed many fearsome hours, but while she hesitated, on the verge of flight, Doubler came to the door, and when she saw that he was an old man with a kindly face, much of her perturbation vanished, and she remained to talk.

      Doubler was hospitable and solicitous and supplied her with some soda biscuit and fresh beef and a tin cup full of delicious coffee. She refused to enter the cabin, and so he brought the food out to her and sat on the step beside her while she ate, betraying much interest in her.

      Doubler asked no questions regarding her identity, and Sheila marveled much over this. But when she prepared to depart she understood why he had betrayed no curiosity concerning her.

      “I reckon you’re that Langford girl?” he said.

      “Yes,” returned Sheila, wondering. “I am Sheila Langford. But who told you? I was not aware that anyone around here knew me—except the people at the Double R.”

      “Dakota told me.”

      “Oh!” A chill came into her voice which instantly attracted Doubler’s attention. He looked at her with an odd smile.

      “You know Dakota?”

      “I have met him.”

      “You don’t like him, I reckon?”

      “No.”

      “Well, now,” commented Doubler, “I reckon I’ve got things mixed. But from Dakota’s talk I took it that you an’ him was pretty thick.”

      “His talk?” Sheila remembered Dakota’s statement that he had told no one of their relations. So he had been talking, after all! She was not surprised, but she was undeniably angry and embarrassed to think that perhaps all the time she had been talking to Doubler he might have been appraising her on the basis of her adventure with Dakota.

      “What has he been saying?” she demanded coldly.

      “Nothing, ma’am. That is, nothin’ which any man wouldn’t say about you, once he’d seen you an’ talked some to you.” Doubler surveyed her with sparkling, appreciative eyes.

      “As a rule it don’t pay to go to gossipin’ with anyone—least of all with a woman. But I reckon I can tell you what he said, ma’am, without you gettin’ awful mad. He didn’t say nothin’ except that he’d taken an awful shine to you. An’ he’d likely make things mighty unpleasant for me if he’d find that I’d told you that.”

      “Shine?” There was a world of scornful wonder in Sheila’s voice. “Would you mind telling me what ‘taking a shine’ to anyone means?”

      “Why, no, I reckon I don’t mind, ma’am, seein’ that it’s you. ‘Takin’ a shine’ to you means that he’s some stuck on you—likes you, that is. An’ I reckon you can’t blame him much for doin’ that.”

      Sheila did not answer, though a sudden flood of red to her face made the use of mere words entirely unnecessary so far as Doubler was concerned, for he smiled wisely.

      Sheila fled down the trail toward the crossing without a parting word to Doubler, leaving him standing at the door squinting with amusement at her. 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. Dakota had never taken Doubler into his confidence, and the information that she succeeded in worming from the nester was not more than he had already volunteered, or than Duncan had given her that day when they were seated on the edge of the butte overlooking the river.

      She was convinced that Doubler had told her all he knew, and she wondered at the custom which permitted friendship on the basis of such meager knowledge.

      She quickly grew to like Doubler. He showed a fatherly interest in her and always greeted her with a smile when during her rides she came to his cabin, or when she met him, as she did frequently, on the open range. His manner toward her was always cordial, and he seemed not to have a care. One morning, however, she rode up to the door of the cabin and Doubler’s face was serious. He stood quietly in the doorway, watching her as she sat on her pony, not offering to assist her down as he usually did, and she knew instantly that something had happened to disturb his peace of mind. He did not invite her into the cabin.

      “Ma’am,” he said, and Sheila detected regret in his voice, “I’m a heap sorry, but of course you won’t be comin’ here any more.”

      “I

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