like Lance!--"but I've come after
the piano."

Mary Hope gasped. Her arms went out instinctively across the keyboard,
as if she would protect the instrument from his defaming touch.

"I'll have to ask yuh to move," said Tom. "Sorry to disturb yuh."

"I--I'm going to pay for it," said Mary Hope, finding her voice faint
and husky. She had an odd sensation that this was a nightmare. She had
dreamed so often of the dance and of the Lorrigans.

"I paid for it long ago. I bought the piano--I've come after it."

Mary Hope slid off the stool, stood facing him, her eyes very blue.
After all, he was not Lance. "You can't have it!" she said. "I won't
let you take it. I'm raising money to pay you for it, and I intend to
keep it." She reached for her purse, but Tom restrained her with a
gesture.

"It ain't for sale," he said, with that hateful smile that always made
her wonder just what lay behind it. "I own it, and I ain't thinking of
selling. Here's the shipping bill and the guarantee and all; I brought
'em along to show you, in case you got curious about whose piano it
is. You see the number on the bill--86945. You'll find it tallies with
the number in the case, if you want to look. Pete, Ed, John, take it
and load it in the wagon."

"Well, now, see here! This is an outrage! How much is the darn thing
worth, anyway? This crowd is not going to stand by and see a raw deal
like this pulled off." It was the Pocatello dentist, and he was very
much excited.

"You saw a raw deal, and stood for it, when you saw the Lorrigans
cold-shouldered out of the dance," Belle flashed at him. "We've stood
for a lot, but this went a little beyond our limit."

"We're not going to stand for anything like this, you know!" Another
man--also from Lava--shouldered his way up to them.

"Git outa the way, or you'll git tromped on!" cried Pete over his
shoulder as he backed, embracing the piano and groping for handholds.

The Lava man gripped Pete, trying to pull him away. Pete kicked back
viciously with a spurred heel. The Lava man yelled and retreated,
limping.

Just how it happened, no two men or women afterward agreed in the
telling. But somehow the merrymakers, who were merry no longer, went
back and back until they were packed solidly at the sides and near
the door, a few squeezing through it when they were lucky enough to
find room. Behind them came four of the Devil's Tooth men with
six-shooters, looking the crowd coldly in the eyes. B