Scott and Lefever arriving
from the south an hour ahead of time, he started toward the front
door--which was still open--to greet them. Outside, hurried footsteps
reached the door just ahead of him and a large man, stepping quickly
into the room, confronted de Spain. One of the man's hands rested
lightly on his right side. De Spain recognized him instantly; the
small, drooping head, carried well forward, the keen eyes, the long
hand, and, had there still been a question in his mind, the
loud-patterned, shabby waistcoat would have proclaimed beyond
doubt--Deaf Sandusky.

CHAPTER X

THE GLASS BUTTON

Even as the big fellow stepped lightly just inside and to the left--as
de Spain stood--of the door and faced him, the encounter seemed to de
Spain accidental. While Sandusky was not a man he would have chosen to
meet at that time, he did not at first consider the incident an
eventful one. But before he could speak, a second man appeared in the
doorway, and this man appeared to be joking with a third, behind him.
As the second man crossed the threshold, de Spain saw Sandusky's
high-voiced little fighting crony, Logan, who now made way, as he
stepped within to the right of the open door, for the swinging
shoulders and rolling stride of Gale Morgan.

Morgan, eying de Spain with insolence, as was his wont, closed the
door behind him with a bang. Then he backed his powerful frame
significantly against it.

A blind man could have seen the completeness of the snare. An
unpleasant feeling flashed across de Spain's perception. It was only
for the immeasurable part of a second--while uncertainty was
resolving itself into a rapid certainty. When Gale Morgan stepped into
the room on the heels of his two Calabasas friends, de Spain would
have sold for less than a cup of coffee all his chances for life.
Nevertheless, before Morgan had set his back fairly against the door
and the trap was sprung, de Spain had mapped his fight, and had
already felt that, although he might not be the fortunate man, not
more than one of the four within the room would be likely to leave it
alive.

He did not retreat from where he halted at the instant Sandusky
entered. His one slender chance was to hug to the men that meant to
kill him. Morgan, the nearest, he esteemed the least dangerous of the
three; but to think to escape both Sandusky and Logan at close
quarters was, he knew, more than ought to be hoped for.

While Morgan was closing the