ed Longstreth,
sarcastically. "I inquired, too, just how that very desired event was to
be brought about."

"The gang will lay him out."

"Bah!" retorted Longstreth, in turn. He laughed contemptuously.

"Floyd, don't be a fool. You've been on the border for ten years. You've
packed a gun and you've used it. You've been with rustlers when they
killed their men. You've been present at many fights. But you never in
all that time saw a man like this ranger. You haven't got sense enough
to see him right if you had a chance. Neither have any of you. The only
way to get rid of him is for the gang to draw on him, all at once. Then
he's going to drop some of them."

"Longstreth, you say that like a man who wouldn't care much if he did
drop some of them," declared Lawson; and now he was sarcastic.

"To tell you the truth, I wouldn't," returned the other, bluntly. "I'm
pretty sick of this mess."

Lawson cursed in amazement. His emotions were all out of proportion to
his intelligence. He was not at all quick-witted. Duane had never seen a
vainer or more arrogant man.

"Longstreth, I don't like your talk," he said.

"If you don't like the way I talk you know what you can do," replied
Longstreth, quickly. He stood up then, cool and quiet, with flash of
eyes and set of lips that told Duane he was dangerous.

"Well, after all, that's neither here nor there," went on Lawson,
unconsciously cowed by the other. "The thing is, do I get the girl?"

"Not by any means except her consent."

"You'll not make her marry me?"

"No. No," replied Longstreth, his voice still cold, low-pitched.

"All right. Then I'll make her."

Evidently Longstreth understood the man before him so well that he
wasted no more words. Duane knew what Lawson never dreamed of, and that
was that Longstreth had a gun somewhere within reach and meant to use
it. Then heavy footsteps sounded outside tramping upon the porch. Duane
might have been mistaken, but he believed those footsteps saved Lawson's
life.

"There they are," said Lawson, and he opened the door.

Five masked men entered. They all wore coats hiding any weapons. A big
man with burly shoulders shook hands with Longstreth, and the others
stood back.

The atmosphere of that room had changed. Lawson might have been a
nonentity for all he counted. Longstreth was another man--a stranger to
Duane. If he had entertained a hope of freeing himself from this band,
of getting away to a safer country, he