He knew that Laramie must have escaped Carpy and escaped
Belle, to look for the men that had tried that morning to kill him.
Having found Stone he meant then and there to fight.

Tenison likewise realized that he was in no condition to do it, and
promptly intervened: "Don't look at me, Jim," he said. "But I'm
talking. There's no man in Sleepy Cat can clear this room now. Most
of this crowd are your friends. They want to see this hell-hound
cleaned up. But you know what it means to some of 'em if two guns cut
loose."

Stone saw the gate open. He welcomed a chance to dodge. Eyeing
Laramie, he swallowed his drink, set his glass on the bar. With a
voice dried and cracked, he cried: "Keep your hands off, Tenison. I'll
give Jim Laramie all the fight he wants, here or anywhere."

Tenison was willing to bridge the crisis with abuse. "Shut up, you
coyote," he remarked, with complete indifference.

"You'll throw a man down no matter how much of your whisky he drinks,
won't you, Tenison?" cried Stone.

Tenison, both hands judicially spread on the bar, seemed to fail to
hear. "McAlpin," he said contemptuously, "walk around behind Laramie
and lift Stone's gun."

Stone started violently. "Look out, Tenison! I lift my gun when
there's men to stand by and see fair play!"

A roar of laughter went up. "I don't lift it for no frame-up," he
shouted, turning angrily toward the unsympathetic crowd. "Get out!"
cried one voice far enough back to be safe. "Send for Barb," shouted a
second. "Page Van Horn," piped a barber, as Stone moved toward the
door.

The baited foreman turned only for a parting shot at Laramie: "I'll see
_you_ later."

"If I was your friend," retorted Laramie, unmoved, "I'd advise you not
to. If you ride my trail don't expect anything more from me. And I
make this town," he hammered home the point with his right forefinger
indicating the floor, "and the Falling Wall range _my_ trail."

"Stone ought to have tried it tonight," observed Tenison at the cash
register. He was speaking to his bartender long after Stone had
disappeared, Laramie had been put to bed again and the billiard hall
had been deserted. "He'll never get a chance again at Laramie half
shot to pieces."

CHAPTER XXXVII

KATE BURNS THE STEAK

Laramie, held for a week in bed, learned from the Doctor of Belle's
outburst at Kate, and, acting through him and with him, arranged peace.

Complaining of a cold, with her othe