d.

"My orders, hot out'n Blenham's mouth, is to stick on the job here an'
saw wood," he said colorlessly. "I'm takin' my pay off'n him an' I'm
doin' what he says."

There seemed only a careless indifference in his gesture as he partly
turned his back, staring up-stream; but the slight movement served to
show Packard that Woods carried a gun on his hip, in plain sight.
Well, Woods himself had said--"I expected you!"

Last night and for a definite purpose Steve had armed himself; this
morning, setting out on this errand, he had tossed the revolver into a
table drawer at the ranch-house. He had never been a gunman; if
circumstance dictated that he must go armed, well and good. But his
brows contracted angrily at the display of Woods's readiness for
gun-play.

"Look here, you Joe Woods!" he cried out. "And listen, too, you
Blenham! I'm no trouble-seeker; I know it's a dead easy thing to start
a row that will see more than one man dead before it's ended, and
what's the use? But I mean to have what is mine in spite of you and
Hell-Fire Packard and the devil! The right of the whole deal is as
plain as one and one: This is my outfit, if it is mortgaged; nobody
excepting me has any business ordering my timber cut. And I say that
it's not going to be cut. If there is any trouble it's up to you
fellows."

From Blenham in the cabin came no sound; Woods, having glanced swiftly
at Packard's angry face, again stared up-stream.

For a little Steve Packard gnawed at his lip, caught in an eddy of
helpless rage. Never an answer from Blenham, never an answer from
Woods; angry already, their silences maddened him. Across the creek he
saw the cook standing in his kitchen door, listening and smiling in
sickly fashion; two or three of the men, coming out for their
breakfasts, were watching him.

They were an ugly, red-eyed bunch, he thought as he swept them with his
flashing eyes; they'd fight like dogs for the joy of fighting; soon or
late, if Blenham persisted, he'd have the job on his hands of throwing
them off his land. Of course he could go "higher up"; he could appeal
to his grandfather.

He could, but in his present mood he had no intention of doing any such
thing. His grandfather, before now, should have withdrawn these men.

"Don't ask me to hold my hand!" the old man had shouted at him. "I'm
goin' after you tooth an' big toe-nail!"

Well, if the old man wanted trouble and range war----

His blood was rus