, eh? It might have been one fer the lad here, though,
if you had yer way. I saw ye pull yer horses over to scare him, and
when he spoke up to ye like a man, ye slashed him with yer whip. He
didn't sass ye, not a bit of it."

"Well, you'll git the same, then, ye old fool," and once more Tom
raised his whip to strike.

He was not dealing with a boy now, however, but with the strongest man
in Hillcrest. Tom knew this, but in his rage he had thrown reason to
the wind. With lightning rapidity Captain Josh reached up, caught Tom
by the arm, and in a twinkling brought him sprawling upon the side of
the road. With an ugly oath, the teamster tried to regain his feet,
but he was helpless in the grip of the captain's powerful arm. He
writhed and cursed, but all in vain, and at length was forced to give
up the struggle, and sat panting upon the road completely cowed.

By this time several men from the store surrounded the contestants, who
watched with much interest the subjection of Tom Dunker. To them
Captain Josh paid no heed, but stood glowering over his victim. When
he saw that he was subdued he let go his grip, and stepped back a
couple of paces.

"Now, git up!" he demanded.

As Tom made no effort to obey, the captain leaned forward, caught him
once more in his mighty grip, and lifted him to his feet.

"Stand there, ye wobbly-kneed cur!" he cried.

"I'll have the law of ye," Tom wailed. "If there's B-b-british
justice, you'll git it!"

"H'm," the captain snorted. "Ye talk about British justice. Ye may
thank yer stars at this very minute that the law hasn't its grip upon
ye fer tryin' to kill a harmless boy. But I'll do it instead. I'll be
the British justice, judge, lawyers, jury, and the whole dang concern
combined. Now, look here, Tom Bunker, you apologise to that youngster
fer what ye did to him this mornin'."

Tom's face, livid with rage, took a darker tinge at this command. More
on-lookers had now arrived, who jeered and hooted the unfortunate man.
It was a great joke to see the boaster at length brought low by quaint
old Captain Josh. Such a thing didn't happen every day, and they could
well afford to lose any amount of time to see the fun. But it was far
from fun for the victim of their sport. He made one more effort to
assert himself, and turned furiously upon his captor with words and
fists. But two hands gripped him now instead of one, and he was
brought down upon the road with such a