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  He watched while the latter looked at the signature; he saw the expression of disappointment that swept over Dale’s face. Then Sanderson spoke coldly:

  “Right and proper, eh, Dale? Now I’ll trouble you for that letter that my dad dropped about a year ago—the one you picked up. It was a letter from me, an’ dad had let you read it. Fork it over, or I’ll bore you an’ take it from your clothes!”

  CHAPTER XI

  THE ULTIMATUM

  Dale’s face whitened; for a moment he sat rigid, staring, his eyes boring into Sanderson’s. Then he reached into a pocket, drew out a dirty envelope, and threw it at Sanderson’s feet.

  “You’re a damned smart boy, ain’t you, Bransford?” he sneered. “But I’m out to get you—remember that!”

  “And you remember this, Dale!”

  Sanderson was at the head of the horse Dale rode. His eyes were blazing with suppressed fury, brought on by the other’s threat. “There’s goin’ to be a new deal in the basin. From now on I’m runnin’ things—an’ they’re runnin’ square! I ain’t got any use for any law but this!” He tapped the butt of his six-shooter significantly. “An’ if you go to gettin’ mixed up with the Double A or the Nyland ranch you’ll get it—plenty!”

  Dale grinned, hideously. Then he kicked his horse in the ribs and rode away.

  Mary Bransford had not moved from her position on the porch. Sanderson watched Dale ride away, then he smiled at Mary and entered the house. Mary followed him. She saw Owen standing in the sitting-room, and her face showed her surprise.

  Sanderson explained. “Owen an’ me framed up on Dale,” he said. “You saw it work.”

  “You’ll be careful, won’t you, Will?” she said.

  “Deal,” smilingly insisted Sanderson.

  “Deal,” she repeated, giving him a look that made him blush. Then she went into one of the other rooms, and Sanderson and Owen went outside. At the corner of the stable Sanderson halted and faced Owen.

  “You’ve got some explainin’ to do,” he said. “How did you know Dale had a letter from Will Bransford to his father; an’ how did you know that Dale wanted me to write my name on that brand-registering blank so he could compare it with Will Bransford’s name on the letter?”

  “Will Bransford told me he wrote such a letter; he showed me a letter from his dad which told how he had dropped Will’s letter and how Dale had picked it up. Dale thought old Bransford hadn’t seen him pick up the letter—but Bransford did see him. And last night I was snooping around over at the Bar D and I overheard Dale and Silverthorn cooking up this deal.”

  Sanderson grinned with relief. “Well,” he said, “that name-signing deal sure had me considerable fussed up.” He told Owen of his mental torture following the discovery of the letter that had disappeared from the dresser drawer. “We’ve got to run together from now on,” he told Owen. “I’ll be Bransford an’ you’ll be Bransford’s name. Mebbe between us we’ll make a whole man.”

  Over at the Bar D, Dale was scowling at Silverthorn.

  “He ain’t Will Bransford,” Dale declared. “He signed his name all O.K. an’ regular, just the same as it was on the letter. But just the same he ain’t a Bransford. There ain’t no Bransford ever had an eye in him like he’s got. He’s a damned iceberg for nerve, an’ there’s more fight in him than there is in a bunch of wildcats—if you get him started!”

  “Just the same,” smiled Silverthorn, silkily, “we’ll get the Double A. Look here—” And the two bent their heads together over Dale’s desk.

  CHAPTER XII

  DALE MOVES

  A passionate hatred of Alva Dale was slowly gripping Sanderson. It had been aroused on that first day of his meeting with the man, when he had seen Dale standing in front of the stable, bullying Mary Bransford and Peggy Nyland and her brother. At that time, however, the emotion Sanderson felt had been merely dislike—as Sanderson had always disliked men who attempted to bully others.

  Sanderson’s hatred of Dale was beginning to dominate him; it was overwhelming all other emotions. It dulled his sense of guilt for the part he was playing in deceiving Mary Bransford; it made him feel in a measure justified in continuing to deceive her.

  For he divined that without his help Mary would lose the Double A.

  Sanderson had always loved a fight, and the prospect of bringing defeat and confusion upon Dale was one that made his pulses leap with delight.

  He got up on the morning following Dale’s visit, tingling with eagerness. And yet there was no sign of emotion in his face when he sat with Mary Bransford at breakfast, and he did not even look at her when he left the house, mounted his horse, and rode up the gorge that split the butte at the southern end of the range.

  All morning he prowled over the table-land, paying a great deal of attention to the depth of the gorge, estimating its capacity for holding water, scanning the far reaches of the big basin carefully, and noting the location of the buildings dotting it.

  Shortly after noon he rode back to the house and came upon Mary in the kitchen.

  “I’ve put off askin’ until now,” he said while eating the food that Mary placed before him. “How much money did dad leave?”

  “Not much,” she said. “He was never very prosperous. It took a great deal to send me to school, and the thousand I sent you I saved myself out of the allowance he gave me. I think there are three thousand dollars to father’s credit at the bank in Okar.”

  “Where’s Okar?”

  She looked quickly at him. “Don’t you remember Okar? That little town just beyond the mouth of the basin? Why, you’ve been there a good many times, Will, on errands for father. There wasn’t much to Okar when you were here—just a few shanties and a store. Surely you remember!”

  Sanderson flushed. “I reckon I do remember, now that you speak of it,” he lied. “But I don’t think Okar has grown much.”

  “Okar has grown to be an important town—for this locality,” Mary smiled. “You see, the railroad has made it grow. It is now quite large, and has a bank and a dozen or more stores. It is a depot for supplies for a big section, and the railroad company has built large corrals there. A man named Silverthorn—and Alva Dale—are the rulers of Okar, now.”

  “Who is Silverthorn?”

  “He is connected with the railroad company—a promoter, or something of that character. He is trying to make a boom town of Okar. He has bought a great deal of land in the basin.”

  “You know what he wants the land for?” Sanderson smiled at her.

  “For speculation purposes, I suppose. If he could get water—”

  “You’ve figured it out,” said Sanderson. “But he won’t get water. The water belongs to the Double A—to me an’ to you. An’ we’re goin’ to sell it ourselves.”

  “You mean—” began Mary.

  “That we’re going to build an irrigation dam—with all the fixin’s. You and me.”

  The girl sat erect, her eyes luminous and eager. “Do you think we can do it?” she whispered.

  “Do you think you could trust me with the three thousand you said dad left? An’ would you be willin’ to mortgage the Double A—if we needed more money?”

  “Why,” she declared, breathlessly, “the Double A is yours—to do with as you see fit. If you want to try—and you think there is a chance to win—why, why—go to it!”

  “You’re a brick!” grinned Sanderson. “We’ll start the ball to rollin’ right away.”

  Sanderson could not escape the vigorous hug she gave him, but he did manage to evade her lips, and he went out of the house blushing and grinning.

  It was late in the afternoon when he got to Okar. Barney Owen was with him. The two rode into town, dismounted at a hitching rail in front of a building across the front of which was a sign:

  THE OKAR HOTEL

  Okar was flourishing—as Mary Bransford said. At its northwestern corner the basin widened, spreading between the shoulders of two mountains and meeting a vast stretch of level
land that seemed to be endless.

  Okar lay at the foot of the mountain that lifted its bald knob at the eastern side of the basin’s mouth. Two glittering lines of steel that came from out of the obscurity of distance eastward skirted Okar’s buildings and passed westward into an obscurity equally distant.

  The country around Okar was devoted to cattle. Sanderson’s practiced eye told him that. The rich grassland that spread from Okar’s confines was the force that had brought the town into being, and the railroad would make Okar permanent.

  Okar did not look permanent, however. It was of the type of the average cow-town of the western plains—artificial and crude. Its buildings were of frame, hurriedly knocked together, representing the haste of a people in whom the pioneer instinct was strong and compelling—who cared nothing for appearances, but who fought mightily for wealth and progress.

  Upon Okar was the stamp of newness, and in its atmosphere was the eagerness and the fervor of commercialism. Okar was the trade mart of a section of country larger than some of the Old World states.

  Fringing the hitching rails in front of its buildings were various vehicles—the heavy wagons of Mexican freighters, the light buckboard of the cattleman, and the prairie schooner of the homesteader. Mingling with the vehicles were the cow-ponies of horsemen who had ridden into town on various errands; and in the company corrals were many cattle awaiting shipment.

  Sanderson stood beside his horse at the hitching rail for a look at Okar.

  There was one street—wide and dust-windrowed, with two narrow board walks skirting it. The buildings—mostly of one story—did not interest Sanderson, for he had seen their kind many times, and his interest centered upon the people.

  “Different from Tombstone,” he told Owen as the two entered the hotel. “Tombstone is cattle—Okar is cattle and business. I sort of like cattle better.”

  Owen grinned. “Cattle are too slow for some of Okar’s men,” he said. “There’s men here that figure on making a killing every day—financially. Gamblers winning big stakes, supply dealers charging twenty times the value of their stuff; a banker wanting enormous interest on his money; the railroad company gobbling everything in sight—and Silverthorn and Dale framing up to take all the land and the water-rights. See that short, fat man playing cards with the little one at that table?”

  He indicated a table near the rear of the barroom, visible through an archway that opened from the room in which a clerk with a thin, narrow face and an alert eye presided at a rough desk.

  “That’s Maison—Tom Maison, Okar’s banker. They tell me he’d skin his grandmother if he thought he could make a dollar out of the deal.” Owen grinned. “He’s the man you’re figuring to borrow money from—to build your dam.”

  “I’ll talk with him tomorrow,” said Sanderson.

  In their room Sanderson removed some of the stains of travel. Then, telling Owen he would see him at dusk, he went out into the street.

  Okar was buzzing with life and humming with activity when Sanderson started down the board walk. In Okar was typified the spirit of the West that was to be—the intense hustle and movement that were to make the town as large and as powerful as many of its sister cities.

  Threading his way through the crowd on the board walk, Sanderson collided with a man. He grinned, not looking at the other, apologized, and was proceeding on his way, when he chanced to look toward the doorway of the building he was passing.

  Alva Dale was standing just inside the doorway, watching him, and as Sanderson’s gaze met his Dale grinned sneeringly.

  Sanderson’s lips twitched with contempt. His own smile matched Dale’s in the quality of its hostility.

  Sanderson was about to pass on when someone struck him heavily between the shoulders. He staggered and lurched against the rough board front of the building going almost to his knees.

  When he could steady himself he wheeled, his hand at his hip. Standing near him, grinning maliciously, was the man with whom he had collided.

  In the man’s right hand was a pistol.

  “Bump into me, will you—you locoed shorthorn!” sneered the man as Sanderson turned. He cursed profanely, incoherently. But he did not shoot.

  The weapon in his hand began to sag curiously, the fingers holding it slowly slipping from the stock. And the man’s face—thin and seamed—became chalklike beneath the tan upon it. His eyes, furtive and wolfish, bulged with astonishment and recognition, and his mouth opened vacuously.

  “Deal Sanderson!” he said, weakly. “Good Lord! I didn’t git a good look at yon! I’m in the wrong pew, Deal, an’ I sure don’t want none of your game!”

  “Dal Colton,” said Sanderson. His voice was cold and even as he watched the other sheathe his gun. “Didn’t know me, eh? But you was figurin’ on pluggin’ me.”

  He walked close to the man and stuck his face close to the other, his lips in a straight line. He knew Colton to be one of the most conscienceless “killers” in the section of the country near Tombstone.

  “Who was you lookin’ for, then?” demanded Sanderson.

  “Not you—that’s a cinch!” grinned the other, fidgeting nervously under Sanderson’s gaze. He whispered to Sanderson, for in the latter’s eyes he saw signs of a cold resolve to sift the matter to the bottom:

  “Look here, Square; I sure don’t want none of your game. Things has been goin’ sorta offish for me for a while, an’ so when I meets a guy a while ago who tells me to ‘git’ a guy named Will Bransford—pointin’ you out to me when your back was turned—I takes him up. I wasn’t figurin’—”

  “Who told you to get Bransford?” demanded Sanderson.

  “A guy named Dale,” whispered Colton.

  Sanderson turned swiftly. He saw Dale still standing in the doorway. Dale was grinning coldly, and Sanderson knew he suspected what had been whispered by Colton. But before Sanderson could move, Dale’s voice was raised loudly and authoritatively:

  “Arrest that man—quick!”

  A man behind Sanderson lunged forward, twisting Sanderson around with the impetus of the movement. Off his balance, Sanderson saw three or four other men dive toward Colton. He saw Colton reach for the weapon he had previously sheathed; saw the weapon knocked from his hand.

  Four men seized Colton, and he struggled helplessly in their grasp as he was dragged away, his face working malignantly as he looked back at Dale.

  “Double-crossed!” he yelled; “you damned, grinnin’ coyote!”

  A crowd had gathered; Sanderson shouldered his way toward Dale and faced him. Sanderson’s face was white with rage, but his voice was cold and steady as he stood before Dale.

  “So that’s the way you work, is it, Dale? I’ll give you what you was goin’ to pay Colton, if you’ll pull your gun right now!”

  Dale’s smile was maddeningly insolent.

  “Bah!” he said, “I’m an officer of the law. There are a dozen of my men right behind you! Pull your gun! I’d like nothing better than to have an excuse to perforate you! Sanderson, eh?” he laughed. “Well, I’ve heard of you. Square Deal, eh? And here you are, masqueradin’ as Will Bransford! That’s goin’ to be quite an interestin’ situation at the Double A when things get to goin’, eh?”

  He laughed again, raucously, and turned his back to Sanderson, disappearing into the store.

  Sanderson glanced behind him. Several men were watching him, their faces set and determined. Sanderson grinned at them and continued his interrupted walk down the street.

  But something had been added to his hatred of Alva Dale—the knowledge that Dale would not scruple to murder him on any pretext. Sanderson’s grin grew wider as he walked, for he knew of several men who had harbored such evil intentions against him, and they—

  But Dale was a stronger antagonist, and he had power and authority behind him. Still, his spirit undaunted, Sanderson’s grin grew wider, though perhaps more grim. It was entirely worth while, now, the deceiving of the woman he had hoped to protect; it wasn’t he
r fight, but his. And he would make the fight a good one.

  CHAPTER XIII

  A PLOT THAT WORKED

  Sanderson left the board walk and cut through a yard to the railroad. He followed the rails until he reached the station. To his question the station agent informed him that Dave Silverthorn might be found in his office on the second floor of the building.

  Sanderson went up. A sign on a glass door bore Silverthorn’s name. Sanderson entered without knocking.

  Silverthorn was seated at a desk in a far corner of the room. He looked up as Sanderson opened the door, and said shortly:

  “Well—what is it?”

  Sanderson crossed the room and halted beside the desk. For an instant neither man spoke. Sanderson saw a man of medium height with a rather well-rounded stomach, sloping shoulders, and a sleek, well-fed appearance. His cheeks were full and florid, his lips large and loose; his eyes cold, calculating, and hard.

  Silverthorn saw a lean-faced, broad-shouldered young man with a strong chin, a firm mouth, and an eye that fixed him with a steady, unwavering interest.

  By the gleam in Sanderson’s eyes Silverthorn divined that he was in the presence of a strong, opposing force, and he drew a slow, deep breath.

  “Well?” he said, again.

  “You’re Dave Silverthorn?”

  The other nodded. “What can I do for you?” he questioned.

  “You can listen while I talk,” said Sanderson.

  “I’m Will Bransford, of the Double A. I have heard from several sources that you an’ Alva Dale are after the title to the Double A. You want the water-rights. You can’t have them. An’ the title to the Double A stays with me. Understand that? I am goin’ to hold on to the property.

  “I’ve heard you can juggle the law—that’s your business. But you can’t juggle the law enough to horn in on the Double A. If you do, I’m comin’ for you with a law of my own!” He tapped his gun bolster significantly.

  “That’s all,” he concluded. “Are you sure you understand?”