knowledge of the future.

CHAPTER XVII

BLACK GANDIL

The knowledge of the torment he was inflicting made the eye of Black
Gandil bright with triumph.

He continued, and now every man in the room was sitting up, alert, with
gloomy eyes fixed upon Pierre: "Patterson is the first, but he ain't
the last. He's just the start. Who's next?" He looked slowly around.

"Is it you, Bud, or you, Phil, or you, Jim, or maybe me?"

And Pierre said: "What makes you think you know that trouble's coming,
Morgan?"

"Because my blood runs cold in me when I look at you."

Red Pierre grew rigid and straightened in a way they knew.

"Damn you, Gandil, I've borne with you and your croaking too long, d'ye
hear? Too long, and I'll hear no more of it, understand?"

"Why not? You'll hear from me every time I sight you in the offing.
You c'n lay to that!"

The others were tense, ready to spring for cover, but Boone reared up
his great figure.

"Don't answer him, Pierre. You, Gandil, shut your face or I'll break
ye in two."

The fierce eyes of Pierre le Rouge never wavered from his victim, but
he answered: "Keep out of this. This is my party. I'll tell you why
you'll stop gibbering, Gandil."

He made a pace forward and every man shrank a little away from him.

"Because the cold in your blood is part hate and more fear, Black
Gandil."

The eyes of Gandil glared back for an instant. With all his soul he
yearned for the courage to pull his gun, but his arm was numb; he could
not move it, and his eyes wavered and fell.

The shaggy gray head of Jim Boone fell likewise, and he was murmuring
to his savage old heart:

"The good days are over. They'll never rest till one of 'em is dead,
and then the rest will take sides and we'll have gun-plays at night.
Seven years, and then to break up!"

Dick Wilbur, as usual, was the pacifier. He strode across the room,
and the sharp sound of his heels on the creaking floor broke the
tension. He said softly to Pierre: "You've raised hell enough. Now
let's go up and get Jack down here to undo what you've just finished.
Besides, you've got to ask her for that dance, eh?"

The glance of Pierre still lingered on Gandil as he turned and followed
Wilbur up the complaining stairs to the one habitable room in the
second story of the house. It was set aside for the use of Jacqueline.

At the door Wilbur said: "Shrug your shoulders back; you look as if you
were going to jump at som