ly grim smile. But he had no time to enjoy his
satisfaction for the big man spoke and this time he did not laugh.

"Well," he said shortly, "you're going to have something to do with me.
You're going to hook up with me or I'm putting that crazy brother of
yours out of business!"

The girl was suddenly rigid and a deep red as suddenly suffused her
cheeks. The young man's face paled at the threat, his teeth came
together with a snap, and he leaned forward, wishing to hear some more
of this extraordinary conversation. More of it came quickly. The girl
spoke, her voice even and well controlled, though burdened with a biting
sarcasm:

"What a terrible man you are, to be sure, to threaten to make war upon a
defenseless girl and her afflicted brother. But I'm not afraid of you!"

She took a step toward him, standing very close to him and looking
straight into his eyes. She was fighting bravely for her composure, but
the young man had seen that her lips had quivered pitifully during her
brief speech. He stiffened with sympathy. He could not, of course,
understand this strange conversation, but he could discern its drift,
and the suggestive underplay in the big man's words. But plainly he had
not been mistaken in his estimate of the young woman--she seemed
entirely able to take care of herself.

He crowded a little closer, though he knew that this conversation was
none of his affair further than that he was interested--as any man would
be interested--in seeing that the young woman received decent treatment.
Certainly so far she had not received that, yet neither had the big man
said anything to warrant interference by a stranger. Stealing another
glance, the young man saw a heavy revolver at the man's hip, and he did
not doubt, from what he had thus far seen of him, that he would use the
weapon should he turn and discover that there was a listener to his
conversation. Such an action would accord perfectly with tales that the
young man had heard of this section of the country. But he edged closer.

The big man's face had become poisonously bloated. The girl's defiance
seemed to have enraged him.

"Hell!" he said venomously. "You're talking damn brave!" He leaned
closer to her. "And you think you'd be disgraced if folks knowed you was
a friend of mine?" He laughed harshly. "Most folks are tickled to be
known as my friend. But I'm telling you this: If I ain't a friend I'm an
enemy, and you're doing as I say or I'm making thi