ht here in
this section. _You_ hain't got to live here. Now do you think Gid Ward
can afford to be put on his back just yet? I know just who'd tromp on
me, an' I know it better'n you. Now I tell you fair an' square you've
got to give in." He bellowed the word "got" and thunked his fist on his
knee.

"There is no answer to that required from me, Colonel Ward."

"All right, then. Come along, Hackett!" Ward commanded. "We'll give this
critter a little time to figure this thing over, an' think whether he's
got any friends that he'd like to get back to." They went out and locked
the door.

CHAPTER TEN--THE WANGAN DUEL

AFTER the fashion of any prisoner, Parker's initial impulse was to
examine the place in which he was confined. At first, escape was in his
mind. The more he pondered on the lawless performance of the old timber
baron and on the wilful destruction of the company's property, the more
eager he was to get to a telegraph instrument.

Nothing had been taken from his person. He had his huge, sharp,
jack-knife. The door was strong and thick but he believed that if he
attacked the wood vigorously he might be able to whittle out the lock.

There were wooden bars on the windows outside and within, rude
protection against thieves who might want to ransack the stock of the
wangan store. His stout knife would take care of them, too.

But after whittling vigorously at a bar for a few moments he stopped
suddenly, shut his knife and rammed it into his pocket with an
exclamation of sudden resolve.

He reflected that even if he got out of the camp that night, he was more
than fifty miles from Poquette, the only point in that wilderness whose
location was known to him. He was without food for a journey and had his
weary way to make through Gideon Ward's own country.

"He has brought me here to bluster at me and frighten me into running
away out of the section," he reflected. "I'll stay and disappoint him."

His own respect for law and order was still so strong within him that he
feared no extreme measures. His honest belief was that the colonel, like
most men who find they have picked up a brick too hot for them, would
drop him in good time and allow him to return to his work.

In order to force the old man to this issue he determined to put on a
bold front, defy his captor still more doggedly and in the end accept
release under conditions of his own making. He felt that Ward was
compromised and now to a certai