o the bunkhouse to get their things for the day's riding.

"Our new friend, the gun-fighter," he said, pointedly emphasizing the
last phrase, "ain't none too happy this morning. Marianne give him a
smile last night and he was waiting for another this morning. He sure
looks cut up, eh?"

The bowed head and rounded shoulders of Red Perris brought a chuckle
from the cowpunchers. They were not at all kindly disposed towards
him. Too much reputation is a bad thing for a man to have on his hands
in the West. He is apt to be expected to live up to it every moment of
his waking hours. Not a man in the Valley of the Eagles outfit but was
waiting to see the newcomer make the first move towards bullying one
of them. And such a move they were prepared to resent en masse. That
Marianne might have made a good deal of a fool out of Perris, as
Hervey suggested, pleased them immensely.

"Maybe the ranch suits him pretty well," suggested Slim, ironically.
"Maybe he figures it might be worth his while to pick it up by
marrying the old man's girl. Eh, Lew?"

Lew Hervey shrugged his shoulders. He did not wish to directly accuse
the gun-fighter of anything, for talk is easily traced to its source
and the account of Shorty had filled the foreman with immense respect
for the fighting qualities of Red Perris. However, he was equally
determined to rouse a hostile sentiment towards him among the
cowhands.

"Well," said Lew, "you can't blame a gent for playing for high stakes
if he's going to gamble at all. I guess Red Perris is all right. A kid
like him can't help being a little proud of himself."

"Damn fat-head," growled Slim, less merciful, "sat right next to me
and didn't say two words all through breakfast. Ain't going to waste
no words on common cowpunchers, maybe."

So the first impression of Red Jim was created on the ranch, an
impression which might be dispelled by the first real test of the man,
or which in the absence of such a test might cling to him forever:
Perris was a conceited gun-fighter, heart-breaker, and bully. The men
who trooped into the bunkhouse behind him already hated him with a
religious intensity; in ten minutes, they might have accepted him as a
bunkie! For your true Western cowpuncher, when all is said and done,
unites with Spartan stoicism a Spartan keenness of suspicion.

It was not hard for the foreman to see the trend of events. Something
had roused an ugly mood in Perris. It might be, as he surmised, t