stant later was pounding
heavily upon the front door.

It was opened after an instant, and Mrs. Lawler appeared, pale, anxious.

"Oh!" she said, startled, when she saw Antrim's face in the glare of
light from within; "I thought you were one of the Circle L men!" She
shrank back a little when Antrim grinned evilly at her, catching her
breath with a gasp.

"What do you want?" she demanded.

Antrim crossed the threshold and stood inside, where the light was full
upon his face. Repelled--almost terrorized by what she saw in his eyes,
Mrs. Lawler attempted to retreat from him; but in an instant he had
seized her arms, roughly and brutally crushing them against her sides,
while he shoved her back against the open door; holding her in that
position and grinning hideously at her helplessness.

"You know me?" he sneered, his face close to hers. "I'm Antrim!" He
laughed when she caught her breath; when he noted that she recognized
the name.

"I reckoned you'd know me, when I told you," he said. "Luke Lawler
knowed me--an' your son knows me! I've never had no love for the Lawler
breed, an' I ain't changed any. But there's a lot of things that I'm
squarin' up for!

"This is my night; I've been waitin' for it!" he gloated. "I'm cleanin'
up on the Lawlers! I'm wipin' Kane Lawler out--cattle, buildings--an'
him too, mebbe. It ain't goin' to be a thing you ought to see. You're
gettin' away from here--I don't give a damn where. An' you're goin'
now!"

Awed by his manner and by the terrible threat in his voice, Mrs. Lawler
did not resist the physical strength of the outlaw. Though Antrim's
fingers were gripping her arms until the pain made her long to cry out
in agony, she made no sound. Nor--now that she realized what
portended--did her gaze waver as it met Antrim's. Her eyes glowed with
contempt as they looked into his--with a proud scorn that brought a
crimson flush into Antrim's cheeks. It had been that spirit that had
always enraged Antrim--that had always made him realize his inferiority
to her husband, and to the steady-eyed son who had shamed him publicly
at Willets. It was a thing that physical violence could not conquer; it
revealed a quiet courage that had always disconcerted him.

"Hell!" he sneered; "you can't come any of that high an' mighty stuff on
me!"

He twisted her until she faced the door, and then shoved her before him
across the porch and down upon the level on the ranchhouse yard, toward
the stable a