string of bad words.

"You hire that coyote, Sassoon, to spy for you, do you?" demanded Nan
coolly. "Aren't you proud of your manly relation, uncle?" Duke was
choking with rage. He tried to speak to her, but he could not form his
words. "What is it you want to know, uncle? Whether it is true that I
meet Henry de Spain? It is. I do meet him, and we're engaged to be
married when you give us permission, Uncle Duke--and not till then."

"There you have it," cried Gale. "There's the story. I told you so.
I've known it for a week, I tell you." Nan's face set. "Not only,"
continued her cousin jeeringly, "meeting that----"

Almost before the vile epithet that followed had reached her ears, Nan
caught up the whip. Before he could escape she cut Gale sharply across
the face. "You coward," she cried, trembling so she could not control
her voice. "If you ever dare use that word before me again, I'll
horsewhip you. Go to Henry de Spain's face, you skulker, and say that
if you dare."

"Put down that quirt, Nan," yelled her uncle.

"I won't put it down," she exclaimed defiantly. "And he will get a
good lashing with it if he says one more word about Henry de Spain."

"Put down that quirt, I tell you," thundered her uncle.

She whirled. "I won't put it down. This hulking bully! I know him
better than you do." She pointed a quivering finger at her cousin. "He
insulted me as vilely as he could only a few months ago on Music
Mountain. And if this very same Henry de Spain hadn't happened to be
there to protect me, you would have found me dead next morning by my
own hand. Do you understand?" she cried, panting and furious. "That's
what he is!"

Her uncle tried to break in. "Stop!" she exclaimed, pointing at Gale.
"_He_ never told you that, did he?"

"No; nor you neither," snapped Duke hoarsely.

"I didn't tell you," retorted Nan, "because I've been trying to live
with you here in peace among these thieves and cutthroats, and not
keep you stirred up all the time. And Henry de Spain faced this big
coward and protected me from him with an empty revolver! What business
of yours is it whom I meet, or where I go?" she demanded, raining her
words with flaming eyes on her belligerent cousin. "I will never marry
you to save you from the hangman. Now leave this house." She stamped
her foot. "Leave this house, and never come into it again!"

Gale, beside himself with rage, stood his ground. He poured all that
he safely could of abuse on Na