he'll
let you alone. I'm sure of that."

"Blaisdell, if you don't see that I'm treated right in this mess,
I'll teach you something, too," flared Bad Pete.

"Threatening the president of the mess is a breach of courtesy
on the part of any guest who attempts it," spoke Blaisdell again.
"Gentlemen, what is your pleasure?"

"I move," suggested Slim Morris quietly, "that Pete be considered
no longer a member or guest of this mess."

"Second the motion," cried Rutter, Rice and Grant together.

"The motion appears to have been carried, without the necessity
for putting it," declared Mr. Blaisdell. "Pete, you have heard
the pleasure of the mess."

"Huh!" scowled Bad Pete, picking up his soup plate and draining it.

Jake Wren, at this moment, entered with a big platter of roast
beef, Bob, the helper, following with dishes of vegetables. Then
Bob came in with plates, which he placed before Blaisdell. The
latter counted the plates, finding eight.

"We shan't need this plate, Bob," declared Blaisdell evenly, handing
it back. Then he began to carve.

"Put that plate back with the rest, Bob, you pop-eyed coyote,"
ordered Bad Pete.

Bob, looking uneasy, started to do so, but Blaisdell waved him
away. At that instant Jake Wren came back into the tent.

"For the present, Jake," went on the assistant engineer, "serve
only for seven in this tent. Pete is leaving us."

"Do you mean-----" flared Pete, leaping to his feet and striding
toward the engineer.

"I mean," responded Blaisdell, without looking up, "that we hope
the chainmen's mess will take you on. But if they don't like
you, they don't have to do so."

For ten seconds, while Pete stood glaring at Blaisdell, it looked
as though the late guest would draw his revolver. Pete was swallowing
hard, his face having turned lead color.

"Won't you oblige us by going at once, Pete?" inquired Blaisdell
coolly.

"Not until I've settled my score here," snarled the fellow. "Not
until I've evened up with you, you-----"

At the same time Pete reached for his revolver in evident earnest.
Both his words and his movement were nipped short.

Morris and Rice were the only men in the engineers' party who
carried revolvers. They carried weapons, in the day time, for
protection against a very real foe, the Rocky Mountain rattlesnakes,
which infested the territory through which the engineers were
then working.

Both these engineers reached swiftly for their weapons.