show resentment.

"Met Jasper as I rode in," said Bland, presently. "He told me you made
Bill Black mad, and there's liable to be a fight. What did you go off
the handle about?"

Duane explained the incident. "I'm sorry I happened to be there," he
went on. "It wasn't my business."

"Scurvy trick that 'd been," muttered Bland. "You did right. All the
same, Duane, I want you to stop quarreling with my men. If you were one
of us--that'd be different. I can't keep my men from fighting. But
I'm not called on to let an outsider hang around my camp and plug my
rustlers."

"I guess I'll have to be hitting the trail for somewhere," said Duane.

"Why not join my band? You've got a bad start already, Duane, and if I
know this border you'll never be a respectable citizen again. You're
a born killer. I know every bad man on this frontier. More than one of
them have told me that something exploded in their brain, and when sense
came back there lay another dead man. It's not so with me. I've done a
little shooting, too, but I never wanted to kill another man just to
rid myself of the last one. My dead men don't sit on my chest at night.
That's the gun-fighter's trouble. He's crazy. He has to kill a new
man--he's driven to it to forget the last one."

"But I'm no gun-fighter," protested Duane. "Circumstances made me--"

"No doubt," interrupted Bland, with a laugh. "Circumstances made me a
rustler. You don't know yourself. You're young; you've got a temper;
your father was one of the most dangerous men Texas ever had. I don't
see any other career for you. Instead of going it alone--a lone wolf,
as the Texans say--why not make friends with other outlaws? You'll live
longer."

Euchre squirmed in his seat.

"Boss, I've been givin' the boy egzactly thet same line of talk. Thet's
why I took him in to bunk with me. If he makes pards among us there
won't be any more trouble. An' he'd be a grand feller fer the gang. I've
seen Wild Bill Hickok throw a gun, an' Billy the Kid, an' Hardin, an'
Chess here--all the fastest men on the border. An' with apologies to
present company, I'm here to say Duane has them all skinned. His draw is
different. You can't see how he does it."

Euchre's admiring praise served to create an effective little silence.
Alloway shifted uneasily on his feet, his spurs jangling faintly, and
did not lift his head. Bland seemed thoughtful.

"That's about the only qualification I have to make me eligible for your
b