a padlock on me mouth. Man to man, I'm as good as either of them--damn
sight better. I wisht they was here, one or both; I wisht they would
step up here and fight it out. Bannister's a false alarm, and that
foreman of the Lazy D--" His tongue stumbled over a blur of vilification
that ended with a foul mention of Miss Messiter.

Instantly two chairs crashed to the floor. Two pair of gray eyes met
quietly.

"My quarrel, Bann," said Jim, in a low, even voice.

The other nodded. "I'll see y'u have a clear field."

The man who was with Morgan suddenly whispered in his ear, and the
latter slewed his head in startled fear. Almost instantly a bullet
clipped past McWilliams's shoulder. Morgan had fired without waiting
for the challenge he felt sure was at hand. Once--twice the foreman's
revolver made answer. Morgan staggered, slipped down to the floor, a
bullet crashing through the chandelier as he fell. For a moment his body
jerked. Then he rolled over and lay still.

The foreman's weapon covered him unwaveringly, but no more steadily than
Bannister's gaze the man who had come in with him who lay lifeless on
the floor. The man looked at the lifeless thing, shuddered, and backed
out of the saloon.

"I call y'u all to witness that my friend killed him in self-defense,"
said Bannister evenly. "Y'u all saw him fire first. Mac did not even
have his gun out."

"That's right," agreed one, and another added: "He got what was coming
to him."

"He sure did," was the barkeeper's indorsement. "He came in hunting
trouble, but I reckon he didn't want to be accommodated so prompt."

"Y'u'll find us at the Gimlet Butte House if we're wanted for this,"
said Bannister. "We'll be there till morning."

But once out of the gambling-house McWilliams drew his friend to one
side. "Do y'u know who that was I killed?"

"Judd Morgan, foreman before y'u at the Lazy D."

"Yes, but what else?"

"What do y'u mean?"

"I mean that next to your cousin Judd was leader of that Shoshone-Teton
bunch."

"How do y'u know?"

"I suspected it a long time, but I knew for sure the day that your
cousin held up the ranch. The man that was in charge of the crowd
outside was Morgan. I could swear to it. I knew him soon as I clapped
eyes to him, but I was awful careful to forget to tell him I recognized
him."

"That means we are in more serious trouble than I had supposed."

"Y'u bet it does. We're in a hell of a hole, figure it out any way
y'u like. I