ughed. "So
that's the story yuh brought over here, is it? Hell of a lot uh good
it'll do yuh!"

Something in Pink's face warned Rowdy. Harry's face turned watchfully
from one to the other. Evidently he considered Pink the more uncertain
of the two; and he was quite justified in so thinking. Pink was only
waiting for a cue before using his gun; and when Pink once began, there
was no telling where or when he would leave off.

While Harry stood uncertain, Rowdy's fist suddenly spatted against his
cheek with considerable force. He tumbled, a cursing heap, against the
foot-rail of the bar, scrambled up like a cat--a particularly vicious
cat--and came at Rowdy murderously. The Come Again would shortly have
been filled with the pungent haze of burned powder, only that the
bartender was a man-of-action. He hated brawls, and it did not matter
to him how just might be the quarrel; he slapped the gaping barrels of
a sawed-off shotgun across the bar--and from the look of it one might
imagine many disagreeable things.

"Drop it! Cut it out!" he bellowed. "Yuh ain't going t' make no
slaughter-pen out uh this joint, I tell yuh. Put up them guns or else
take 'em outside. If you fellers are hell-bent on smokin' each other up,
they's all kinds uh room outdoors. Git! Vamose! Hike!"

Conroy wheeled and walked, straight-backed and venomous, to the door.
"Come on out, if yuh ain't scared," he sneered. "It's two agin' one
and then some, by the look uh things. But I'll take yuh singly or in
bunches. I'm ready for the whole damn' Cross L bunch uh coyotes. Come
on, you white-livered--!"

Rowdy rushed for him, with Pink and the Silent One at his heels. He had
forgotten that Harry Conroy ever had a sister of any sort whatsoever.
All he knew was that Harry had done him much wrong, of the sort which
comes near to being unforgivable, and that he had sneered insults that
no man may overlook. All he thought of was to get his hands on him.

Outside, the dusky stillness made all sounds seem out of place; the
faint starlight made all objects black and unfamiliar. Rowdy stopped,
just off the threshold, blinking at the darkness which held his enemy.
It was strange that he did not find him at his elbow, he thought--and
a suspicion came to him that Harry was lying in wait; it would be like
him. He stepped out of the yellow glare from a window and stood in
more friendly shade. Behind him, on the door-step, stood the other two,
blinking as he had done.