btly unspoken agreement that red-haired Donnegan was not one
of them. In a word, they did not like him because he made a mystery of
himself. And, also, because he was different. Yet there was a growing
feeling that the shooting of Lewis through the hand had not been an
accident, for the whole demeanor of Donnegan composed the action of a
man who is a professional trouble maker. There was no reason why he
should go to Milligan's and take his servant with him unless he wished a
fight. And why a man should wish to fight the entire Corner was
something no one could guess.

That he should have done all this merely to focus all eyes upon him, and
particularly the eyes of a girl, did not occur to anyone. It looked
rather like the bravado of a man who lived for the sake of fighting.
Now, men who hunt trouble in the mountain desert generally find all that
they may desire, but for the time being everyone held back, wolfishly,
waiting for another to take the first step toward Donnegan. Indeed,
there was an unspoken conviction that the man who took the first step
would probably not live to take another. In the meantime both men and
women gave Donnegan the lion's share of their attention. There was only
one who was clever enough to conceal it, and that one was the pair of
eyes to which the red-haired man was playing--Nelly Lebrun. She confined
herself strictly to Jack Landis.

So it was that when Milligan announced a tag dance and the couples
swirled onto the floor gayly, Donnegan decided to take matters into his
own hands and offer the first overt act. It was clumsy; he did not like
it; but he hated this delay. And he knew that every moment he stayed on
there with big George behind his chair was another red rag flaunted in
the face of The Corner.

He saw the men who had no girl with them brighten at the announcement of
the tag dance. And when the dance began he saw the prettiest girls
tagged quickly, one after the other. All except Nelly Lebrun. She swung
securely around the circle in the big arms of Jack Landis. She seemed to
be set apart and protected from the common touch by his size, and by his
formidable, challenging eye. Donnegan felt as never before the
unassailable position of this fellow; not only from his own fighting
qualities, but because he had behind him the whole unfathomable power of
Lord Nick and his gang.

Nelly approached in the arms of Landis in making the first circle of the
dance floor; her eyes, grown dul