s. Mobs always "howled and seethed with passion" at one's doors;
they did not stand about and talk quietly as though the subject was
trivial and did not greatly concern them.

But the men were pressing closer, and their very calmness, had he known
it, was ominous. Lauman shifted his rifle ready for instant aim.

"Boys, look here," he began more gravely, "I can't say I blame yuh,
looking at it from your view-point. If you'd caught these men when yuh
was out hunting 'em, you could uh strung 'em up--and I'd likely uh had
business somewhere else about that time. But yuh didn't catch 'em; yuh
give up the chase and left 'em to me. And yuh got to remember that I'm
the one that brought 'em in. They're in my care. I'm sworn to protect
'em and turn 'em over to the law--and it ain't a question uh whether
they deserve it or not. That's what I'm paid for, and I expect to go
right ahead according to orders and hang 'em by law. You can't have
'em--unless yuh lay me out first, and I don't reckon any of yuh would go
that far."

"There's never been a man hung by law in this county yet," a voice cried
angrily and impatiently.

"That ain't saying there never will be," Lauman flung back. "Don't yuh
worry, they'll get all that's coming to them, all right."

"How about the time yuh had 'em in your rotten old jail, and let 'em get
out and run loose around the country, killing off white men?" drawled
another-a Circle-Bar man.

"Now boys."

A hand--the hand of him who had stood guard over the Wagners in the
bedroom during supper--reached out through the doorway and caught his
rifle arm. Taken unawares from behind, he whirled and then went down
under the weight of men used to "wrassling" calves. Even old Lauman was
no match for them, and presently he found himself stretched upon the
porch with three Lazy Eight boys sitting on his person; which, being
inclined to portliness, he found very uncomfortable.

Moved by an impulse he had no name for, Thurston snatched the sheriff's
revolver from its scabbard. As the heap squirmed pantingly upon the
porch he stepped into the doorway to avoid being tripped, which was the
wisest move he could have made, for it put him in the shadow--and
there were men of the Circle Bar whose trigger-finger would not have
hesitated, just then, had he been in plain sight and had they known his
purpose.

"Just hold on there, boys," he called, and they could see the glimmer of
the gun-barrel. Those of the Lazy Eight