er better. You'll go quicker, but
there won't be any coming back, so I advise--Parts Unknown.

"You two Lorrigans--I'm not thinking of you now as my brother and my
father--the same advice applies to you. You're Lorrigans. You'd rather
fight it out than pull out, but you won't. You'd rather kill me than
go. That's all right; I understand perfectly. But--I'm Lorrigan, too.
You'll go, or I'll kill you. Tom Lorrigan, your hand is pret-ty close
to your gun! But so is mine. You'd kill me, because I stand in the
trail you've been traveling. But you wouldn't kill me a damn bit
quicker than I'd kill _you_! I do stand in the trail--and you're
going to take another, both you Lorrigans.

"You had a debt--a bill of damages against the Black Rim. Wel-ll," he
smiled, "you've collected. Now, to-night, you write 'paid' across that
bill. You tried to be honest, and the Black Rim wouldn't give you
credit for it; they tried to frame something on you, tried to send you
'over the road' on a damned, measly charge you weren't small enough to
be guilty of. I understand. The trail ends right here. You quit. You
sit there ready to kill. But I'm just as ready as you are. You'll
quit, or _I'll kill you_!"

He waited, watching Tom. Tom, watching Lance, got up and faced him
cold-eyed, unafraid, weighing not chances, but values rather.

"You'd kill me, would you!" he asked, his voice matching the drawl of
Lance.

"Sure, I'd kill you!" Lance smiled back.

Eyes on a level, the two stared at each other, smiling that deadly,
Lorrigan smile, the smile of old Tom Lorrigan the killer.

"You would, all right," Tom said. Then his stiffened muscles relaxed.
A twinkle came into his eyes. "If you're game enough to do that, kid,
by God, I'm game enough to quit!"

Lance unfolded his arms, reached out with his open right hand and met
Tom's hand in a close grip. "That's the stuff, dad! I knew you had it
in you--I knew it!"

Outside the door, Belle hugged her six-shooter to her breast and
leaned against the wall, her knees shaking under her. "Thank God! Oh,
thank God a Lorrigan can be bigger than all the Lorrigan blood that's
in him!" she whispered. "Oh, Lance, honey--oh, thank God!"

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

THE MAKING OF NEW TRAILS

At the corral, that time-honored conference ground of all true range
men, the three Lorrigans leaned their backs against the rails and
talked things over in true range style: laconic phrases that stated
their meaning