ins, pistol pointing at Raoul, crowded into the doorway beside
Auguste.

The black O of the muzzle pointed at him chilled Raoul. He'd heard that
Frank had fired on the Indians attacking the trading post. Seemed that
day had changed him. Now he was a man like any other, taking up the gun
like any other.

Frank said, "Auguste is not going with you. There will be no duel. Get
away from this house now."

Seeing Frank's foolish defiance in the face of over twenty armed men,
Raoul almost laughed.

But that pistol in Frank's hand could end his life. He couldn't shoot
Auguste while Frank held it on him.

Raoul swung the barrel of his own pistol to cover Frank's chest.

"Get back inside, Frank," he said, putting a steel edge into it.

Instead, with a sudden movement that almost made Raoul squeeze the
trigger, Frank came forward, stepping in front of Auguste.

Raoul saw another movement in the doorway, and then he was staring into
his father's glittering eyes. Elysee's rifle, long barrel trembling only
slightly, was leveled at him.

Raoul decided the best attack was to laugh at them. "Look at the
mongrel's protectors. A weakling who would never carry a pistol and a
lame old man in his nightshirt."

He heard a few snickers among the men behind him and felt encouraged.

But, he thought with fury, he was still trapped. His pistol was aimed at
Frank, but Frank's pistol and his father's rifle were both pointed at
him. If he shot Frank, would Elysee shoot him?

With the palm of his hand he pushed back the hammer of his cap-and-ball
pistol, the muzzle still aimed square at Frank's chest.

"Papa, Frank, both of you get out of the way, or Frank is a dead man."

But Raoul felt as if the bottom was dropping out of his stomach as he
looked at the two men. Neither Elysee nor Frank replied. Raoul saw
resolution in Frank's light blue eyes. The man who had never wanted to
kill was prepared to die.

_I have to shoot first._

He heard Nicole scream as his finger tightened on the trigger.

Frank and Elysee were pushed apart. Raoul was looking into Auguste's
eyes, blazing with a dark fire.

_Kill the mongrel now, and you're done with him forever._

He squeezed the trigger hard. The hammer fell, and the pistol boomed and
blossomed red fire and white smoke.

The pistol and the rifle pointed at Raoul both went off, hurling a
blinding bitter cloud back into his face.

He stood unhurt.

Elysee and Frank had fired, but by pushi