"Yes; I married him," returned Sheila dully, and Langford sank limply into his chair. Dakota smiled with flashing eyes and continued: "Keegles married the woman," he said coldly, "because he thought she was Langford's real daughter." He looked at Sheila with a glance of compassion. "Later, when Keegles discovered that the woman was only Langford's stepdaughter, he was mighty sorry. Not for Langford, however, because he could not consider Langford's feelings. And in spite of what he had done he was still determined to secure revenge. "One day Langford came to Keegles with a proposal. He had seen Keegles kill one man, and he wanted to hire him to kill another--a man named Doubler. Keegles agreed, for the purpose of getting Langford into----" Dakota hesitated, for Langford had risen to his feet and stood looking at him, his eyes bulging, his face livid. "You!" he said, in a choking, wailing voice; "you--you, are Ned Keegles! You--you---- Why----" he hesitated and passed a hand uncertainly over his forehead, looking from Sheila to Dakota with glazed eyes. "You--you are a liar!" he suddenly screamed, his voice raised to a maniacal pitch. "It isn't so! You--both of you--have conspired against me!" "Wait!" Dakota got to his feet, walked to a shelf, and took down a small glass, a pair of shears, a shaving cup, and a razor. While Langford watched, staring at him with fearful, wondering eyes, Dakota deftly snipped off the mustache with the shears, lathered his lip, and shaved it clean. Then he turned and confronted Langford. The latter looked at him with one, long, intense gaze, and then with a dry sob which caught in his throat and seemed to choke him, he covered his face with his hands, shuddered convulsively, and without a sound pitched forward, face down, at Dakota's feet. CHAPTER XX INTO THE UNKNOWN After a time Sheila rose from the bunk on which she had been sitting and stood in the center of the floor, looking down at her father. Dakota had not moved. He stood also, watching Langford, his face pale and grim, and he did not speak until Sheila had addressed him twice. "What are you going to do now?" she said dully. "It is for you to say, you know. You hold his life in your hands." "Do?" He smiled bitterly at her. "What would you do? I have waited ten years for this day. It must go on to the end." "The end?" "Yes; the end," he said gravely. "He"--Dakota pointed to the prostrate figure--"must sign a written confession." "And then?" "He will return to answer for his crime." Sheila shuddered and turned from him with bowed head. "Oh!" she said at last; "it will be too horrible! My friends in the East--they will----" "Your friends," he said with some bitterness. "Could your friends say more than my friends said when they thought that I had murdered my own father in cold blood and then run away?" "But I am innocent," she pleaded. "I was innocent," he returned, with a grave smile.