un I'd be sure to go down."

"You can throw a gun?" questioned Hough.

"I had a cowboy gun-thrower for a partner for years, out on the
surveying of the road. He's the friend I mentioned."

"Boy, you're courting death!" exclaimed Stanton.

Then the music started up again. Conversation was scarcely worth while
during the dancing. Neale watched as before. Twice as he gazed at the
whirling couples he caught the eyes of the girl Ruby bent upon him. They
were expressive of pique, resentment, curiosity. Neale did not look that
way any more. Besides, his attention was drawn elsewhere. Hough yelled
in his ear to watch the fun. A fight had started. A strapping fellow
wearing a belt containing gun and bowie-knife had jumped upon a table
just as the music stopped. He was drunk. He looked like a young workman
ambitious to be a desperado.

"Ladies an' gennelmen," he bawled, "I been--requested t' sing."

Yells and hoots answered him. He glared ferociously around, trying to
pick out one of his insulters. Trouble was brewing. Something was thrown
at him from behind and it struck him. He wheeled, unsteady upon his
feet. Then several men, bareheaded and evidently attendants of the hall,
made a rush for him. The table was upset. The would-be singer went down
in a heap, and he was pounced upon, handled like a sack, and thrown out.
The crowd roared its glee.

"The worst of that is those fellows always come back drunk and ugly,"
said Stanton. "Then we all begin to run or dodge."

"Your men didn't lose time with that rowdy," remarked Neale.

"I've hired all kinds of men to keep order," she replied. "Laborers,
ex-sheriffs, gunmen, bad men. The Irish are the best on the job. But
they won't stick. I've got eight men here now, and they are a tough lot.
I'm scared to death of them. I believe they rob my guests. But what can
I do? Without some aid I couldn't run the place. It'll be the death of
me."

Neale did not doubt that. A shadow surely hovered over this strange
woman, but he was surprised at the seriousness with which she spoke.
Evidently she tried to preserve order, to avert fights and bloodshed, so
that licentiousness could go on unrestrained. Neale believed they must
go hand in hand. He did not see how it would be possible for a place
like this to last long. It could not. The life of the place brought out
the worst in men. It created opportunities. Neale watched them pass,
seeing the truth in the red eyes, the heavy lids, the ope