Helga Strawn's keen womanly perception had in no way misled her concerning her relative's nature. A compelling, masterful disposition like Sledge Hume's grows accustomed to having its way. She was coolly treating him as it was his role to treat others; and he did not like the change of roles. He realised that the conversation had come to an end. At the same time he knew that if he turned and left her, his usual way when all had been said, he would be taking his dismissal like a schoolboy. And he knew that as she looked out over the snow she would be smiling. "I have heard," he went on stubbornly, "of a woman going to see Ettinger and Norfolk. It was you. Now you come to see Shandon. Do you think that I am fool enough to believe that you are not interested in the same thing I am?" "Ah!" she said, turning swiftly. "But I did not say that I was not interested in the irrigation of Dry Valley. I am!" "And," his old weapon, a sneer, coming back, "you are not interested in Shandon?" "Not that much." She snapped her white fingers and Hume saw the sparkle of rings. "Shandon is a fool. So is Ettinger. I am not interested in fools." She paused a moment, her brilliant eyes meeting his. "Are you a fool like the rest, Sledge Hume?" She puzzled him, this woman who should have been that weak, inefficient thing which Hume's conceit pictured all of her sex. He began to be a little more upon his guard in talking with her. "No." He contented himself with the one word, only his eyes demanding an explanation. "I don't think much of your associates," she informed him. "You mean Leland?" "He is bad enough. Garth Conway is worse. They are poor sort of men to swing a big deal." "They are not swinging it," he said bluntly. "You are?" "Yes." Again she paused, her tapering fingers drumming idly upon the glass through which once more she was looking out upon the shining snow. "I was coming to talk with you anyway in a day or so," she said after a little. "I have fifty thousand dollars available. Can you use it?" In spite of him he started. She spoke of the matter so coolly, so indifferently. And there had never been the time yet when Sledge Hume could not use fifty thousand dollars very readily. "Go on," he said. "I saw the other side first," she returned. "They have a bigger chance than you. But there is not a man among them. If you know what you are doing, if you know _how_ to do it, you will make and they will break. I want to get in on the winning side. That's all." "And if we can't make a place for you?" "Then I'll make one for myself. I'll see the farmers again. I'll make them organise instead of bickering. I'll swing the controlling vote myself. If fifty thousand won't do it I'll put the rest in. And then we'll buy you and your crowd out or we'll sell you water or you'll go to pieces so badly that the sheriff will sell you out!"