y. "There's goin' to be hell to pay here.
Trevison won't stand for it--though the other gillies are advisin'
caution. Caution hell! I'm for cleanin' the scum out! Do you know what
Corrigan done, yesterday? He got thirty or so deputies--pluguglies that
he's hired--an' hid 'em behind some flat-cars down on the level where
they're erectin' some minin' machinery. He laid a trap for 'Firebrand,'
expectin' him to come down there, rippin' mad because they was puttin' the
minin' machinery up on his land, wi'out his permission. They was goin' to
shoot him--Corrigan put 'em up to it. That Carson fello' heard it an' put
'Firebrand' wise. An' the shootin' didn't come off. But that's only the
beginnin'!"

"Did Trevison tell you to tell me this?" The girl was stunned, amazed,
incredulous. For her father was concerned in this, and if he had any
knowledge that Corrigan was stealing land--if he _was_ stealing it--he was
guilty as Corrigan. If he had no knowledge of it, she might be able to
prevent the steal by communicating with him.

"Trevison tell me?" laughed Levins, scornfully; "'Firebrand' ain't no
pussy-kitten fighter which depends on women standin' between him an'
trouble. I'm tellin' you on my own hook, so's that big stiff Corrigan
won't get swelled up, thinkin' he's got a chance to hitch up with you in
the matrimonial wagon. That guy's got murder in his heart, girl. Did you
hear of me shootin' that sneak, Marchmont?" The girl had heard rumors of
the affair; she nodded, and Levins went on. "It was Corrigan that hired me
to do it--payin' me a thousand, cash." His wife gasped, and he spoke
gently to her. "That's all right, Ma; it wasn't no cold-blooded
affair--Jim Marchmont knowed a sister of mine pretty intimate, when he was
out here years ago, an' I settled a debt that I thought I owed to her,
that's all. I ain't none sorry, neither--I knowed him soon as Corrigan
mentioned his name. But I hadn't no time to call his attention to
things--I had to plug him, sudden. I'm sorry I've said this, ma'am, now
that it's out," he said in a changed voice, noting the girl's distress;
"but I felt you ought to know who you're dealin' with."

Rosalind went out, swaying, her knees shaking. She heard Levins' wife
reproving him; heard the man replying gruffly. She felt that it _must_ be
so. She cared nothing about Corrigan, beyond a certain regret, but a wave
of sickening fear swept over her at the growing conviction that her father
_must_ know so