to two of the white men. And now Hauck caught the girl
and held her back. David knew that he was dripping red and he was glad
that she came no nearer. Hauck was telling her to go to the house, and
David nodded, and with a movement of his hand made her understand that
she must obey. Not until he saw her going did he pick up his shirt and
step out among the men. Three or four of the whites went to Brokaw. The
rest stared at him still in that amazed silence as he passed among them.
He nodded and smiled at them, as though beating Brokaw had not been such
a terrible task after all. He noticed there was scarcely an expression
in the faces of the Indians. And then he found himself face to face with
Hauck, and a step or two behind Hauck were the two white men he had
talked to so hurriedly. One of them was the man David had brushed
against in passing through the big room. There was a grin in his face
now. There was a grin in Hauck's face, and a grin in the face of the
third man, and to David's astonishment Hauck thrust out his hand.

"Shake, Raine! I'd have bet a thousand to fifty you were loser, but
there wasn't a dollar going your way. A great fight!"

He turned to the other two.

"Take Raine to his room, boys. Help 'im wash up. I've got to see to
Brokaw--an' this crowd."

David protested. He was all right. He needed only water and soap, both
of which were in his room, but Hauck insisted that it wasn't square, and
wouldn't look right, if he didn't have friends as well as Brokaw. Brokaw
had forced the affair so suddenly that none of them had had time or
thought to speak an encouraging or friendly word before the fight.
Langdon and Henry would go with him now. He walked between the two to
the Nest, and entered his room with them. Langdon, the tall man who had
looked hatred at him last night, poured water into a tin basin while
Henry, the smaller man, closed his door. They appeared quite
companionable, especially Langdon.

"Didn't like you last night," he confessed frankly. "Thought you was one
of them damned police, running your nose into our business mebby."

He stood beside David, with the pail of water in his hand, and as David
bent over the basin Henry was behind him. He had drawn something from
his pocket, and was edging up close. As David dipped his hands in the
water he looked up into Langdon's face, and he saw there a strange and
unexpected change--that deadly malignity of last night. In that moment
the object in H