twitching his
shoulders. "It's against orders, an' I'll call the yard-watch, and throw
you out if you make any fuss."

"The yard-watch!" said Tom, with a look of supreme contempt. "I can
handle any two of 'em, an' ye too, an' ye know it." Her cheeks were
aflame. She crowded Lathers so closely his slinking figure hugged the
fence.

By this time the gang had abandoned the buoy, and were standing aghast,
watching the fury of the Amazon.

"Now, see here, don't make a muss; the commandant'll be down here in a
minute."

"Let him come; he's the one I want to see. If he knew he had a man in
his pay that would do as dirty a trick to a woman as ye've done to me,
his name would be Dinnis. I'll see him meself this very day, and"--

Here Lathers interrupted with an angry gesture.

"Don't ye lift yer arm at me," she blazes out, "or I'll break it at the
wrist!"

Lathers's hand dropped. All the color was out of his face, his lip
quivering.

"Whoever said I said a word against you, Mrs. Grogan, is a--liar." It
was the last resort of a cowardly nature.

"Stop lyin' to me, Pete Lathers! If there's anythin' in this world I
hate, it's a liar. Ye said it, and ye know ye said it. Ye want that
drunken loafer Dan McGaw to get me work. Ye've been at it all summer,
an' ye think I haven't watched ye; but I have. And ye say I don't pay
full wages, and have got a lot of boys to do men's work, an' oughter be
over me tubs. Now let me tell ye"--Lathers shrank back, cowering before
her--"if ever I hear ye openin' yer head about me, or me teams, or me
work, I'll make ye swallow every tooth in yer head. Send down somethin'
with a mustache, will I? There's not a man in the yard that's a match
for me, an' ye know it. Let one of 'em try that."

Her uplifted fist, tight-clenched, shot past Lathers's ear. A quick
blow, a plank knocked clear of its fastenings, and a flood of daylight
broke in behind Lathers's head!

"Now, the next time I come, Pete Lathers," she said firmly, "I'll miss
the plank and take yer face."

Then she turned, and stalked out of the yard.

III. SERGEANT DUFFY'S LITTLE GAME

The bad weather so long expected finally arrived. An afternoon of soft,
warm autumn skies, aglow with the radiance of the setting sun, and
brilliant in violet and gold, had been followed by a cold, gray morning.
Of a sudden a cloud the size of a hand had mounted clear of the horizon,
and called together its fellows. An unseen herald in the east