eeling down the aisle, thrusting his bottle right and left, to be denied
with shrinkings or with bluff excuses.

It seemed inevitable that he should reach us. I heard My Lady utter a
little gasp, as she sat more erect; and here he was, espying us readily
enough with that uncanny precision of a drunken man, his bottle to the
fore.

"Have a smile, you two. Wouldn't smile at station; gotto smile now. Yep.
'Ic! 'Ray for Benton! All goin' to Benton. Lesh be good fellers."

"You go back to your seat, Jim," she ordered tensely. "Go back, if you
know what's good for you."

"Whash that? Who your dog last year? Shay! You can't come no highty-tighty
over me. Who your new friend? Shay!" He reeled and gripped the seat,
flooding me with his vile breath. "By Gawd, I got the dead-wood on you,
you----!" and he had loosed such a torrent of low epithets that they are
inconceivable.

"For that I'd kill you in any other place, Jim," she said. "You know I'm
not afraid of you. Now get, you wolf!" Her voice snapped like a whip-lash
at the close; she had made sudden movement of hand--it was extended and I
saw almost under my nose the smallest pistol imaginable; nickeled, of two
barrels, and not above three inches long; projecting from her palm, the
twin hammers cocked; and it was as steady as a die.

Assuredly My Lady did know how to take care of herself. Still, that was
not necessary now.

"No!" I warned. "No matter. I'll tend to him."

The fellow's face had convulsed with a snarl of redder rage, his mouth
opened as if for fresh abuse--and half rising I landed upon it with my
fist.

"Go where you belong, you drunken whelp!"

I had struck and spoken at the same time, with a rush of wrath that
surprised me; and the result surprised me more, for while I was not
conscious of having exerted much force he toppled backward clear across
the aisle, crashed down in a heap under the opposite seat. His bottle
shattered against the ceiling. The whiskey spattered in a sickening shower
over the alarmed passengers.

"Look out! Look out!" she cried, starting quickly. Up he scrambled,
cursing, and wrenching at his revolver. I sprang to smother him, but there
was a flurry, a chorus of shouts, men leaped between us, the brakeman and
conductor both had arrived, in a jiffy he was being hustled forward,
swearing and blubbering. And I sank back, breathless, a degree ashamed, a
degree rather satisfied with my action and my barked knuckles.

Congratulati