or betraying anxiety, or haste. The men
in the road waited, squarely across his path, and their hoarse
fulminations had died away to a far more terrifying silence; yet he
did not seem to heed them as his horses advanced.

"Gad! Doesn't he know who they are?" the bigger man by the rock
mumbled to his partner.

"If he doesn't he has a supreme nerve," the younger man replied. "They
look to me as if they mean trouble. They're in a pretty nasty
temper--what with all the poison they've poured in, and all the
injustice they believe they have met. Wonder who's right?"

A shout from the crowd in the roadway interrupted any further
speculation. The man who had first appeared on the road-house porch
threw up his hand, and roared, "Here he is! We've got him! It's the
Bully!"

The shout was taken up by others until a miniature forest of raised
fists shook themselves threateningly at the man in the buckboard who
was now within a few feet of them.

"Get a rope, somebody! Hang him!" yelled an excited voice.

"Yes, that's the goods," screamed another, heard above the turmoil.
"Up with the Bully!"

Two men sprang forward, and caught the horses by their bits, and
brought them to an excited, nervous stop, and the others began to
surround the wagon. The man in the seat made no movement, but sat
there with a hard smile on his firm lips. The partners stepped to the
top of a convenient rock, where they could overlook the meeting, and
watched, perturbed.

"I don't know about this," the elder said doubtfully. "Looks to me
like there's too many against one, and I ain't sure whether he
deserves hangin'. What do you think?"

"Let's wait and see. Then, if they get too ugly, we'll give them a
talk and try to find out," the younger man answered.

Even as he spoke, a man came running from the door of the road house
with a coil in his hand, and began to assert drunkenly: "Here it is!
I've got it! A rope!"

The partners were preparing to jump forward and protest, when a most
astonishing change took place. The man in the wagon suddenly stood up,
stretched his hand commandingly to the men holding the horses' heads,
and ordered: "Let go of my horses there, you drunken idiots! Let go of
them, I say, or I'll come down there and make you! Understand?"

The men at the horses' heads wavered under that harsh, firm command,
but did not release their hold. Without any further pause, the man
jumped from his buckboard squarely into the road, struck t