n't here now,
but we expect her any minute and when she comes the fun'll start."

As if in answer the hum and whirr of two high-powered motors chugging
in unison stole upon the air and rapidly increased in volume. Ben
craned his neck from the window and then turned disappointedly.

"It's only that Lost Souls crowd!" he grunted. "Jim, if anything in
the line of a fracas starts here, you'll lose that passel of swell
boarders of yours! Can you see them women when the shootin' commences?"

"They're in on it, too!" Jim grinned. "Not the women-folk, but the
men, and more especially our fine young friend, Starr Wiley."

"Something to do with the Lost Souls----"

"Shut up, quick!" Jim advanced from behind the bar with an almost
comic air of ceremony as the motor party trooped in at the door and
headed for the stairs. Perry Larkin squared his pince-nez and
recognized Mrs. Ripley Halstead and her daughter, Angelica, while
behind them appeared seven men; Halstead himself, his son, Vernon,
Starr Wiley, Harrington Chase, Mason North and his son, Winthrop, and a
stranger whom a second glance revealed as Cranmore, the Mexican
representative of the Chase-Wiley interests.

"Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, but we've been waiting for you!" Jim
Baggott began in the voice of a showman. "I'll have to ask you
gentlemen to step this way, all of you. It's a real-pressing little
matter of business you're all concerned in, and the ladies can come,
too, if they feel like it. There'll be more ladies present shortly."

Wondering, the whole party crowded into the room, and, recognizing
Perry Larkin, greeted him with varying degrees of cordiality. Jim
bustled about, setting chairs for them, and in the general confusion
none noted that a little group of men in uniform had issued from a door
behind the bar and taken up their stations at the windows and entrance.
The last comers were in two divisions; the ornate ones, stocky and
swarthy for the most part, the soberly attired, taller and stalwart
with the paler hue of the North.

Starr Wiley was the first to observe their presence, and he uttered a
stifled oath.

"These are just extra witnesses," Jim explained blandly. "They're here
to represent the United States Federal Government and also Mexico. You
see, this-here little matter has what you might call an international
aspect.--Did you speak, Mr. Wiley?"

"I should like to, when you've finished shooting off fireworks!" that
gent