heaf of currency from
which he stripped two bills.

"_And_ a hundred," he said.

The stranger's breath sucked hard through his teeth. His companion
glanced swiftly and suspiciously at him and then at Gerald.

"This started out as a friendly game," he observed, a note of warning in
his voice.

"Well, there's his hundred," the player said. "What you got? Come
on--show 'em." He leaned forward.

"All the bullets," Gavin replied. He spread four aces face up, while his
other hand reached for the pot.

The other stranger leaned forward, also, peering at the cards. Suddenly
he started and his hand shot toward them. But Gavin's fell on it,
pinning it to the table.

"What are you trying to do?" he demanded. Beneath the coldness of his
tone there was something hard and menacing. The stranger wrenched to
free his hand. It remained pinned in Gavin's grasp.

"I want to see those cards!" he cried with an oath.

"Where do you come in?" Gavin asked. "You didn't call me."

"But I did," the losing stranger broke in. "I want to see those cards,
and I'm going to."

"You're looking at them now," Gavin pointed out.

Gerald coolly swept up the cards.

"I dealt them," he said. "They look all right to me. Four aces and a
club seven. Take a look at them, Mackay, and see if this man has
anything to kick at."

Thus appealed to, Angus took the cards. "I don't see anything wrong with
them," he said.

"You don't, hey?" cried the loser. "I'm wise to you now. You did it, did
you?"

"Did what?" Angus queried.

"Slipped him a cold deck!" the other roared. "You did it when he got up
to press the button."

"I did nothing of the sort!" Angus denied in amazement.

"You're a liar!" the other shrilled. "D'ye think we're going to be
cold-decked by a bunch of hicks?" He turned to Gavin. "Come through with
that money, or----"

"Or what?" Gavin asked.

By way of bluff or otherwise the stranger resorted to the old, cogent
argument. His right hand dropped swiftly. But as it did so Gavin thrust
the table forward violently. The man went backward, chair and all.
Gerald pounced on him like a leopard, caught his arm and twisted a
short-barreled gun from the clutching fingers. Gavin, with equal
quickness and less effort, caught and disarmed the other man, who
without a word had reached for his gun to back his friend.

"Bad actors, you two!" Gerald sneered. "Gamblers--gunmen. Shocking!
What'll we do with them, Gan?"

"Let 'em go," said the b