de of the room. Harlan paid no attention to him. His eyes were for
Linton.

"Are you going to apologize?"

"I'll wait until--" began the lawyer, but he got no further.

The Thornton temper had been strained beyond the breaking-point. Harlan
was upon him.

"Bring a dozen!" yelled the Duke after the chairman who had been tugging
at the door, and now escaped.

Linton was tall and muscular, but law-practice is not lumbering. He
struck viciously at Harlan, ducking to and fro with the briskness of the
trained boxer. But the woodsman merely leaped upon him, heedless of his
blows. He bore him down. He drove resistless knees into his shoulders.
He thrust Linton's face against the floor and ground it against the
boards. Then he dragged the limp figure past the cursing Duke toward the
girl. She had fled to a corner, covering her eyes and sobbing in terror.

"D--n you, you'll apologize to the girl who's going to be my wife,"
raved Harlan.

When Presson returned at the head of volunteers the victor was grinding
the bleeding face on the floor once more and Linton was screaming
appeals.

There were enough of them to separate the men. They dragged Harlan away
out of the room in spite of his struggles. The mere sight of the lawyer
seemed to infuriate him more.

The Duke hurried the girl out and away while the peacemakers were
struggling with the young combatants.

"Stop that blubbering," he commanded, roughly. "If you've got any grit
left in you, brace up. Don't let people here notice!"

He was trying to hide as much of the true reason for the affray as he
could. He wanted to get the girl out of sight.

"I didn't know--I did nothing--if it was about me I didn't--" He stopped
her brutally.

"About you, you little fool? Of course it wasn't about you! My grandson
is going to marry Luke Presson's daughter."

She stiffened in the hook of his arm. They were in the corridor and had
not come into the view of the people.

"Every one knows it," he hurried on. He saw an opportunity to get in a
cruel blow at the romance he suspected and hated. "They have been going
together for months. She'll be the right kind of a wife for him. They
were fighting about her--those two young hyenas."

She pulled away from him. The tears were on her cheeks, but she held
herself straight and looked him in the eye.

"That's a lie, Mr. Thornton!"

"It's the truth. He'll marry her if you haven't spoiled it all for
him--spoiled his good name and st