Donnegan."

"Jack, listen! Don't go; keep away from him!"

"Why do you look like that? As if I was a dead one already."

"I tell you, Jack, he'd kill you!"

Something in her terrible assurance whitened the cheeks of Landis, but
he was also angered. When a very young man becomes both afraid and angry
he is apt to be dangerous. "What do you know of him?" he asked
suspiciously.

"You silly! But I saw his face when he lifted that mint. He'd already
forgotten about the man he had just shot down. He was thinking of
nothing but the scent of the mint. And did you notice his giant servant?
He never had a moment's doubt of Donnegan's ability to handle the entire
crowd. I tell you, it gave me a chill of ghosts to see the big black
fellow's eyes. He knew that Donnegan would win. And Donnegan won! Jack,
you're a big man and a strong man and a brave man, and we all know it.
But don't be foolish. Stay away from Donnegan!"

He wavered just an instant. If she could have sustained her pleading
gaze a moment longer she would have won him, but at the critical instant
her gaze became distant. She was seeing the calm face of Donnegan as he
raised the mint. And as though he understood, Jack Landis hardened.

"I'm glad you don't want me shot up, Nelly," he said coldly. "Mighty
good of you to watch out for me. But--I'm going to run this Donnegan out
of town!"

"He's never harmed you; why--"

"I don't like his looks. For a man like me that's enough!"

And he strode away toward Milligan. He was greeted by a cheer just as
the girl reached the side of her father.

"Jack is going," she said. "Make him come back!"

But the old man was still rubbing his hands; there seemed to be a
perpetual chill in the tips of the fingers.

"He is a jackass. The moment I first saw his face I knew that he was
meant for gun fodder--buzzard food! Let him go. Bah!"

The girl shivered. "And then the mines?" she asked, changing her
tactics.

"Ah, yes. The mines! But leave that to Lord Nick. He'll handle it well
enough!"

So Jack Landis strode up the hill first and foremost of the six stalwart
men who wished to correct the stranger's apparent misunderstandings of
the status of The Corner. They were each armed to the teeth and each
provided with enough bullets to disturb a small city. All this in honor
of Donnegan.

They found the shack wrapped in the warm, mellow light of the late
afternoon; and on a flat-topped rock outside it big George sat
whittlin