"Say it, damn you!" he said chokingly. "What do you mean?"

"Don't get so excited, or you may break a blood vessel, Cous--I beg
your pardon, _Mister_ Huntington."

"Say it!" roared the ranchman.

Then Haig dropped his mask.

"I will say it," he began in a voice that rang ominously. "I'll say it
so that even you cannot fail to understand me. I mean that I'm tired
of your threats and persecutions. I mean that you have harassed me and
my men at every opportunity. I mean that you drove that bunch of my
cattle off the cliff last September. I mean that within twenty-four
hours another fence has been cut, and that you know who did it. I mean
that your attempt to buy my horse was only another of the contemptible
and cowardly tricks you have played on me. I mean, Huntington, that
you are a bully, a liar and a thief!"

Huntington's hand had slipped to the butt of his revolver at the
beginning of this intolerable speech; but he had waited, as if
fascinated, as if unable to move under the torrent of denunciation.
Then to the onlookers it appeared that the bold young man, who had not
yet made the slightest motion toward his own weapon, would be slain in
his tracks. But Haig was as much the quicker in action as he was the
nimbler in wit.

The two revolvers cracked, it seemed, as one, but with very different
results. Haig's battered old hat, lifted as if by a sudden gust of
wind, slid from his head, and fell to the ground with a bullet hole
through it. But Huntington threw up his hands, pitched forward, and
fell in a heap in the dusty road.

There was a single shrill, short-cut shriek as a woman near the door
of the post-office slipped down in a faint; and then a chorus of
quavering cries as other women clutched the arms of the men nearest
them.

Marion swayed in her saddle, her head drooping on her breast. A young
cowboy darted from the crowd, and grabbed her as she fell. He started
to lift and carry her away, but, with a desperate effort, she
recovered, and stood erect, trying to thrust him from her. He held her
nevertheless, supporting her with an arm under one of hers.

Haig had quickly turned and faced the group of men at the left of the
road.

"Is there anybody else here that wants to buy my horse?" he demanded
coolly.

There was no response, no movement. He whirled, and confronted the
silent row of men on the other side.

"Is there anybody else here who thinks he can drive me out of Paradise
Park?"

Still no