ngs mighty unpleasant
for you and your poor, 'afflicted' brother!"

The young man saw the girl's hands clench, saw her face grow slowly
pale. Twice now had the big man taunted her about her brother, and
plainly his words had hurt her. Words trembled on her lips but refused
to come. But for an instant she forced her eyes to meet those of the man
and then they suddenly filled with tears. She took a backward step, her
shoulders drooping. The big man followed her, gloating over her. Again
the young man's thoughts went to the lion and the mouse.

"Hurts, does it?" said the big man, brutally. "Well, you've brought it
on yourself, being such a damn prude!"

He reached out and grasped her by the shoulder. She shrank back,
struggling with him, trying to grasp the butt of an ivory-handled
revolver that swung at her right hip. The big man pinned her arms and
the effort was futile.

And then retribution--like an avalanche--struck the big man. He heard
the movement, sensed the danger, and flung his right hand toward his
pistol butt. There was a silent struggle; a shot, one of the young man's
arms swung out--flail like--the clenched hand landing with a crash. The
big man went down like a falling tree--prone to the ground, his revolver
flying ten feet distant, a little blue-white smoke curling lazily upward
out of its muzzle. The big man was raised again--bodily--and hurled down
again. He lay face upward in the white sunlight--a mass of bruised and
bleeding flesh.

The young man's anger had come and gone. He stood over the big man,
looking down at him, his white teeth gleaming through his slightly
parted lips.

"I think that will do for you," he said in an even, passionless voice.

For an instant there was a tense silence. The young man turned and
looked at the girl, who was regarding him with surprised and bewildered
eyes.

The young man smiled mirthlessly. "I think I waited rather too long. But
he won't bother you again--at least for a few minutes."

He saw the girl's gaze directed to a point somewhere behind him and he
turned to see that a door in the side of the Fashion Saloon was vomiting
men. They came rushing out, filling the space between the two
buildings--cowboys mostly, with a sprinkling of other men whose
appearance and attire proclaimed them citizens. The young man stood
silent while the newcomers ranged themselves about him, others giving
their attention to the big man who still lay on the ground. The girl had