oked downward.
When her eyes grew accustomed to the light she paled.

In the big room were many men. She saw Shorty standing among them--she
recognized them as Circle L cowboys. Shorty's guns were out; in fact the
men in the group near Shorty seemed to bristle with weapons.

At the rear of the room was another group of men. They stood motionless,
silent, and had no weapons in their hands. But some of them were
crouching, their faces grim and set.

And then Ruth heard Shorty's voice--hoarse, raucous with passion:

"You guys that don't belong to Slade's gang, get out! Fan it! You Slade
men stand! I know every damned one of you!"

There was a short silence, during which several men slipped away from
the group at the rear of the room and bolted for the rear door. And
then, suddenly, as Shorty muttered words that Ruth did not hear, both
groups of men leaped into action.

Ruth saw the men in the group at the rear reach, concertedly, for their
weapons; she saw smoke streaks stabbing the heavy atmosphere of the big
room; heard the roar and crash of pistols; saw men falling, to land in
grotesque positions; saw Shorty, huge and terrible amid the billowing
smoke, shoot a man who tried to leap over the bar, so that he fell
across it limply, as though sleeping. She observed another man--one of
Slade's--dodge behind a card table, rest his pistol for an instant on
its top, and shoot at Shorty. She saw Shorty snap a shot at the man, saw
the man's head wobble as he sank behind the table. And then she was
suddenly aware that it was ended. A ghastly silence fell. Through the
heavy smoke she saw Shorty, standing where he had stood all along--near
the cluster of lights just inside the front door. It seemed to her that
the room was full of motionless figures of men, strewing the floor.

She was sick and weak, but she knew she must get out into the air or she
would faint; and so she began to descend the stairs, holding to the
slender railing for support.

She got down without anyone seeing her. No one seemed to pay any
attention to her. As she reached a side door--opening into the space
from which the outside stairs ran--she looked back, to see Shorty and a
number of Circle L men clustered around Blackburn--who was sitting in a
chair, looking very white.

She got out into the open and ran toward the street, hardly knowing
what she intended to do. Whatever happened, she did not want to stay
longer in the Wolf. She had a feeling that