rs and settle the
matters there. He caught Garland around the middle and was gripped in
return.

For a moment he thought Garland was not trying, was not doing his best;
and then, suddenly and joyfully, he realized that he _was_ doing it, and
that it was not good enough. He was stronger than Garland. He had the
back, and the legs, and the arms and the lungs of him, man though he
was. With the knowledge he snarled like a young wolf, and suddenly
strength swelled in him like the bore of a tide. He ran Garland back
half a dozen paces, and wrenched and twisted him. Getting his right
hand free he smashed him again under the ribs, and as Garland, gasping,
clinched, he locked his long arms around him, and with his shoulder
against the stomach, his legs propped and braced, and every muscle from
jaw to heel tautening, he squeezed him like a young python.

Garland tried to hold the walls of his body against the grip, and
failed. Angus heard him pant, and felt the tremors of the man's frame as
the strength oozed out of him. Garland's grip weakened and loosened, and
he tried for Angus' throat and failed, for the boy's chin was tucked
home on his breast-bone, and he beat him over the back and head wildly
with his fists and caught at his arms; and then his head and body began
to go backward.

Angus heard Alice Page's voice as from a great distance, for that locked
grip of his was like the blind one of a bulldog.

"Angus! Angus! let him go!"

And he plucked Garland from his footing easily, for the latter was now
little more than dead weight, and threw him on his back into the running
ditch. He stood above him, his chest heaving, like a young wolf above
his first kill.

Garland splashed into the chilly water, and drew himself out of it
gasping and cursing with returning breath. Angus tapped him on the mouth
with the toe of his moccasin.

"That is no talk for a woman to hear," he said. "Get out, or I'll throw
you back in the ditch."

Garland got to his feet unsteadily, and went to his horse.

"I'll fix you for this," he said as he got into the saddle.

"You are a bluff," Angus told him, "and you know it as well as I do. Get
out!"

When horse and rider were indistinct, Angus turned to Alice Page.

"You saw him--kiss me, Angus?" she said.

"Yes," he admitted, "but I didn't mean to. I had words with him
to-night, and I was waiting till you would go past, but you stopped
right in front of me."

"I'm very glad you were ther