releasing his hold on Janet staggered back, at the same time thrusting
a hand under his coat.

But the rancher's pistol was whipped forth first.

"You'd try that game, would you?" Johnson said, with his ragged beard
out-thrust and stiff. "Put up your hands; I want to see how they look
sticking up over your head."

Sorenson though now holding them in sight did not at once comply.

"Johnson, you're butting into something that doesn't concern you," he
said, endeavoring to speak calmly.

"You've made one mistake in striking me; don't make another by keeping
that gun pointed at my head. Remember I've a mortgage on your place
that you'll wish renewed one of these days."

The expression of scorn on the rancher's face was complete.

"Trying that line, are you?" he sneered. "Think you can play the
money-lender now and scare me? You didn't look much like a banker
reaching for your gun; you just looked like a killer then, a plain
bar-room killer--but I beat you to the draw. You've got fat and slow,
haven't you, since early days when you use to put lead into poor
devils whose stuff you wanted. And you didn't look like a banker to
me, either, trying to bulldoze Janet when I came in; you looked like
the big dirty coward you are. Aha, here's the doctor! Now just tell
him how it comes you can order me out of his house, and why you were
threatening Janet and making her scream."

The physician turned a white, angry countenance to Sorenson.

"I heard the scream. Is it true you were abusing my daughter?" he
demanded, stepping in front of the man.

"I came here because I learned my son Ed had been broken to bits
through her trickery and damnable----"

The words were cut off by the doctor's hand which smote the
blasphemous lips uttering them.

Even more than Johnson's blow did this slap upon the mouth enrage the
cattleman. His face became congested, his shoulders heaved, but behind
the doctor was the revolver still directed at his head.

"You've come here uninvited and you've said too much," Doctor Hosmer
stated in cold even tones. "You may be the town magnate, but you're
only a ruffian and a crook after all. You can't bluff or bully us.
More than that, you've insulted my daughter and me beyond any future
reparation. As for your son, he got less than he deserved." He turned
to the rancher. "You came just in time, it seems. Please see that he
leaves the house."

Johnson waved with his gun significantly towards the door.

"