ce lighted on de
Spain before the latter had inspected him more than a moment. He lost
no time in beginning on de Spain with an insolent question as to what
he was looking at. De Spain, his eye bent steadily on him, answered
with a tone neither of apology nor pronounced offense: "I am looking
at you."

Lefever hitched at his trousers cheerily and, stepping away from de
Spain, took a position just behind the dealer. "What are you looking
at me for?" demanded Logan insolently.

De Spain raised his voice to match exactly the tone of the inquiry.
"So I'll know you next time."

Logan pushed back his chair. As he turned his legs from under the
table to rise, a hand rested on his shoulder. He looked up and saw the
brown face and feeble smile of Scott. Logan with his nearest foot
kicked Sandusky. The big fellow looked up and around. Either by chance
or in following the sound of the last voice, his glance fell on de
Spain. He scrutinized for a suspicious instant the burning eyes and
the red mark low on the cheek. While he did so--comprehension dawning
on him--his enormous hands, forsaking the pile of chips with which
both had been for a moment busy, flattened out, palms down, on the
faro-table. Logan tried to rise. Scott's hand rested heavily on him.
"What's the row?" demanded Sandusky in the queer tone of a deaf man.
Logan pointed at de Spain. "That Medicine Bend duck wants a fight."

"With a man, Logan; not with a cub," retorted de Spain, matching
insult with insult.

"Maybe I can do something for you," interposed Sandusky. His eyes ran
like a flash around the table. He saw how Lefever had pre-empted the
best place in the room. He looked up and back at the man standing now
at his shoulder, and almost between Logan and himself. It was the
Indian, Scott. Sandusky felt, as his faculties cleared and arranged
themselves every instant, that there was no hurry whatever about
lifting his hand; but he could not be faced down without a show of
resistance, and he concluded that for this occasion his tongue was the
best weapon. "If I can," he added stiffly, "I'm at your service."

De Spain made no answer beyond keeping his eyes well on Sandusky's
eyes. Tenison, overhearing the last words, awoke to the situation and
rose from his case. He made his way through the crowd around the
disputants and brusquely directed the dealer to close the game. While
Sandusky was cashing in, Tenison took Logan aside. What Tenison said
was not audible