roat--"hm-m-m."

"Don't hm-m-m me," snarled Blue Jeans promptly. "And get out of my
light."

In his own way the huge man was a genius, for surely nothing else could
have accomplished it.

"Warm, isn't it?" he commented; and at that inanity Blue Jeans raised
his head.

The huge man had his first fair view of the other's fine hard youth;
and while he observed the self-possessed eyes and long nose,
acquisitive and courageous, Blue Jeans devoted the interval to a
counter-scrutiny. He scanned the newcomer from head to foot, silk hose
and hair-line suit and expensive panama. The rings upon those pudgy
fingers held longest his wandering eye, the blue-white fortune in the
burnt-orange cravat. But all this seemed to kindle no approval.

"Prosperous!" he muttered bitterly. "Prosperous! And yet I don't hate
you like I did that superintendent. Just as much maybe, but not just
the same. . . . Go away!"

But the huge man smiled and stood his ground until finally Blue Jeans
slanted his head at him, wickedly, and fell to talking again.

"I could pluck that stone from out your tie _that_ easy!" And his
voice held no assurance that he would not act upon his words. "Just as
easy! Yes, and I could beat you over the head with my gun--oh, sure
I've got one!--just like he beat that roan horse, and strip your
pockets and be clean away before one of those"--he nodded over his
shoulder at the train--"could think to call for help. And thinking to
call for help would come quicker to them than thinking to help without
calling. And Girl o' Mine would carry me clear in five minutes."

He paused remorselessly, as if to let this sink in, but out of the
silence, "I don't scare easily," the huge man said.

"Pshaw! I'm not telling you to try to scare you," Blue Jeans scoffed.
"I'm telling myself how simple it could be--and wondering why I don't
do it!"

"I can tell you that," answered the Easterner. "Because you're honest."

But that was not subtle, and he realized the flattery had been
ill-chosen, even before Blue Jeans flared, which was almost
instantaneously.

"Don't you tell me I'm honest! Don't you dare even hint I am! It's
honesty brought me here."

The huge man laughed gently. He'd made one mistake; few could accuse
him of repeating in stupidity. He took accurate stock of the symptoms;
set his sights upon what he surmised must be the bull's-eye of Blue
Jeans' discontent; waited a nicely balanced moment, and fired