th heavy, hurried strides. "This ain't Skitter Reach, you
dog-gone coyote, nor that ain't your pap's shanty. What's itchin' you,
blast you?"

Archie swung round at the first shout. There was a wild expression on
his somewhat weak face. It was the face of a weak nature suddenly
worked up into the last pitch of frenzy. But even so the approach of
Jake was not without its effect. His very presence was full of threat
to the weaker man. Archie was no physical coward, but, in that first
moment of meeting, he felt as if he had been suddenly taken by the
collar, lifted up and shaken, and forcibly set down on his feet again.
And his reply came in a tone that voiced the mental process he had
passed through.

"I've come for help. I was in Forks last night, and only got home this
afternoon," he answered, with unnatural calmness. Then the check gave
way before his hysterical condition, and Jake's momentary influence
was lost upon him. "I tell you it's Red Mask! It's him and his gang!
They've shot my father down; they've burned us out, and driven off our
stock! God's curse on the man! But I'll have him. I'll hunt him down.
Ha! ha!" The young man's blue eyes flashed and his face worked as his
hysteria rose and threatened to overwhelm him. "You hear?" he shouted
on--"what does it say? Blood for blood. I'll have it! Give me some
help. Give me horses, and I'll have it! I'll----" His voice had risen
to a shriek.

"You'll shut off that damned noise, or"--Jake's ferocious face was
thrust forward, and his fierce eyes glared furiously into the
other's--"or git."

Archie shrank back silenced at once. The effect suited the foreman,
and he went on with a sardonic leer--

"An' you'll have 'blood for blood' o' Red Mask? You? You who was away
boozin' in Forks when you'd a right to ha' been around lookin' to see
that old skinflint of a father o' yours didn't git no hurt. You're
goin' to round up Red Mask; you who ain't got guts enough but to crawl
round here fer help to do it. You!"

A hot reply sprang to the youngster's lips in spite of his fear of
this man, but it died suddenly as a voice from within the doorway
broke in upon them.

"And a right purpose too, Archie."

Diane stepped out on to the verandah and ranged herself at his side,
while her scornful brown eyes sought the foreman's face. There was a
moment's pause, then she looked up into the boy's troubled face.

"You want to see my father?"

Archie was only eighteen, and though