nd beside him. A grim smile wreathed his face over the
knowledge that in the crowd there were at least two men upon whom he
might depend to the end--whatever the end might be.

He heard Dunlavey snarl an oath, saw his big form loom out of the crowd,
saw one of his gigantic hands reach for the hat on the table.

"I reckon I'll take charge of this now!" he sneered, his brutal face
close to Hollis's.

Hollis would have struck the face that was so close to his, but at the
instant he saw Dunlavey's hand reach out for the hat he saw another hand
dart out from the other side of the table, seize the hat, and draw it
out of Dunlavey's reach.

"I don't reckon that you'll take charge of her!" said a voice.

Hollis turned quickly. Over the table leaned Ten Spot, the captured hat
in his hand, a big forty-five in the other, a cold, evil glitter in his
eyes as he looked up at Dunlavey.

"I don't reckon that you're goin' to have a hand in runnin' this show
a-tall, Bill," he sneered. "Me an' my friends come down here special to
tend to that." He grinned the shallow, hard grin that marks the passing
of a friendship and the dawn of a bitter hatred. "You see, Bill, me an'
my friends has got sorta tired of the way you've been runnin' things an'
we're shufflin' the cards for a new deal. This here tenderfoot which
you've been a-slanderin' shameful is man's size an' we're seein' that he
gits a fair shake in this here. I reckon you git me?"

Hollis felt Norton poking him in the ribs, but he did not turn; he was
too intent upon watching the two principal actors in the scene. Tragedy
had been imminent; comedy was slowly gaining the ascendency. For at the
expression that had come over Dunlavey's face several of the men were
grinning broadly. Were the stakes not so great Hollis would have felt
like smiling himself. Dunlavey seemed stunned. He stood erect, passing
his hand over his forehead as though half convinced that the scene were
an illusion and that the movement of the hand would dispel it. Several
times his lips moved, but no words came and he turned, looking about at
the men who were gathered around him, scanning their faces for signs
that would tell him that they were not in sympathy with Ten Spot. But
the faces that he looked upon wore mocking grins and sneers.

"An' I've been tellin' the boys how you set Yuma on Nellie Hazelton, an'
they've come to the conclusion that a guy which will play a low down
mean game like that on a woman