a proper understanding of this affair. Jim Duff wants me
thrown out of here--"

"Yes! And out you'll go!" roared a voice from the rear of the crowd.

"That's a question that the next few minutes will settle," Tom rejoined,
with a smile. "If Jim Duff wants me thrown out of here, why don't you
men tell him to do it himself?"

The force of this suggestion, with the memory of what they had recently
seen, struck home with many of the men. A shout of laughter went up,
followed by yells of:

"That's right--dead right!"

"Sail in, Jim!"

"Throw him out, Jim! We'll see fair play!"

Tom made an ironical bow in the direction of the gambler.

"Have you men gone crazy!" yelled Jim Duff hoarsely.

"Have you lost your nerve, Jim?" bawled a lusty American laborer. "You
want this boy, as you call him, thrown out, and we're waiting to see you
do it. It you haven't the nerve to tackle the job, then you're not a man
to give us orders!"

Tom's smiling good humor and his fair proposition had swung the balance
of feeling against the gambler. Duff saw that he had lost ground.

"Boy," called a few voices, "if Duff won't throw you out, then you turn
the tables and throw him out."

"It isn't necessary," laughed Tom. "After the tents are gone Duff won't
have any desire to remain around here. Mr. Duff, I ask you for the last
time, will you have your men take down the tents and remove them?"

"I won't!" snarled the gambler.

"Mr. Rivers!" called Tom.

"Yes, sir," replied the foreman, stepping forward.

"Mr. Rivers, take twenty-five laborers and bring the tents down at once.
Be careful to see that no damage is done. As soon as they are down you
will load them on the wagons."

"Yes, sir."

"On second thought, you had better take fifty men. See that the work is
done as promptly as possible."

The Mexicans, who were in the majority, and nearly all of whom were
wildly eager to gamble as soon as their money arrived, stirred
uneasily. They might have interfered, but Foreman Mendoza ran among his
countrymen, calling out to them vigorously in Spanish, and with so much
emphasis that the men sullenly withdrew.

Foreman Rivers speedily had his fifty men, together, none of whom were
Mexicans.

"Touch a single guy-rope at your peril!" warned Jim Duff menacingly, but
big Superintendent Hawkins seized the gambler by the shoulders, gently,
though, firmly, removing him from the vicinity of the tents.

All in a flash the work was done. Can