arely into the big man's eyes.

"Go to h----"

"Guess I'd as lief be in Forks; it's warmer," replied Slum,
imperturbably.

"Stow yer gas! You nag like a widder as can't git a second man."

"Which wouldn't happen wi' folk o' your kidney around."

Shaky was on his feet in an instant, and his anger was blazing in his
fierce eyes.

"Say, you gorl----"

"Set right ther', Shaky," broke in Slum, as the big man sprang toward
him. "Set right ther'; ther' ain't goin' to be no hoss-play."

Slum Ranks had not shifted his position, but his right hand had dived
into his jacket pocket and his eyes flashed ominously. And the
carpenter dropped back into his seat without a word.

And Tresler looked on in amazement. It was all so quick, so sudden.
There had hardly been a breathing space between the passing of their
good-nature and their swift-rising anger. The strangeness of it all,
the lawlessness, fascinated him. He knew he was on the fringe of
civilization, but he had had no idea of how sparse and short that
fringe was. He thought that civilization depended on the presence of
white folk. That, of necessity, white folk must themselves have the
instincts of civilization.

Here he saw men, apparently good comrades all, who were ready, on the
smallest provocation, to turn and rend each other. It was certainly a
new life to him, something that perhaps he had vaguely dreamt of, but
the possibility of the existence of which he had never seriously
considered.

But, curiously enough, as he beheld these things for himself for the
first time, they produced no shock, they disturbed him in nowise. It
all seemed so natural. More, it roused in him a feeling that such
things should be. Possibly this feeling was due to his own upbringing,
which had been that of an essentially athletic university. He even
felt the warm blood surge through his veins at the prospect of a
forcible termination to the two men's swift passage of arms.

But the ebullition died out as quickly as it had risen. Slum slid from
the bar to the ground, and his deep-set eyes were smiling again.

"Pshaw," he said, with a careless shrug, "ther' ain't nothin' to grit
wi'out savee."

Shaky rose and stretched himself as though nothing had happened to
disturb the harmony of the meeting. The butcher relinquished his hold
on the bar and moved across to the window.

"Guess the missis'll be shoutin' around fer you fellers to git your
suppers," Slum observed cheerfully. Then