ispered Akins. "Their hearts is
bad--can't you see? Come along!" Aloud he said: "If you get that ball
it makes you pool."

The door from the barroom opened and two men appeared. One, a heavy
man with a bullet head much too small for him, went to the free lunch;
the other, a dwarfish creature with a twisted sullen face, walked to
the Australian and shook him by the shoulder.

"Come on, Sanders. Say good night to the library. You're a married man
and you don't want to be in this." His voice had been contemptuously
kind so far; but now he snarled hatred. "Hell will be popping here
pretty quick, and some smart Aleck is going to get what's coming to
him. Oh, bring your precious 'pyper,' if you want to. Sim won't mind.
Come along--Larriken!"

The big man followed obediently.

"Part of that is good," observed Shaky Akins. "The part where he said
good night. I'm saying it."

He made for the back door. The other man at the reading table rose and
followed him.

"Good night, Shaky. Drop me a post hole, sometime," said Charlie.

The bullet-head man, now eating toast and shrimps, regarded See with
a malicious sneer. See rummaged through the papers, selected a copy
of The Black Range, and seated himself sidewise on the end of the
billiard table; then laying the paper down he reached for the triangle
and pyramided the pool balls.

The swinging door crashed inward before a vicious kick. Caney stalked
in. His pitted face was black with rage. Weir followed. As the door
swung to there was a glimpse of savage eager faces crowded beyond.

Caney glared across the billiard table.

"We're not good enough for you to drink with, I reckon," he croaked.

Charlie laid aside the triangle. The free lunch man laughed
spitefully. "Aren't you?" said Charlie, indifferently.

Caney raised his voice. "And I hear you been saying I was a gallows
bird?"

Charlie See adjusted a ball at the corner of the pyramid. Then he gave
to Caney a slow and speculative glance.

"Now that I take a good look at you--it seems probable, don't it?"

"Damn you!" roared Caney. "What do you mean?"

"Business!"

No man's eye could have said which hand moved first. But See was the
quicker. As Caney's gun flashed, a pool ball struck him over the
heart, he dropped like a log, his bullet went wide. A green ball
glanced from Jody's gun arm as it rose; the cartridge exploded
harmlessly as the gun dropped; Weir staggered back, howling. He struck
the swinging door si