going to hang you."

Rage and terror mingled in McTurpin's face. Speechless, paralyzing
wrath that held him open-mouthed a moment. In that moment Windham acted
quickly. He hurled the bottle, still half full of ale, at his
antagonist, missed him by the fraction of an inch and sent the missile
caroming against the Bruiser's ear, thence down among a pyramid of
glasses. There was a shivering tinkle; then the roar as of a maddened
bull. The Bruiser charged. Windham shot twice into the air and fled. He
heard a rending crash behind him, a voice that cried aloud in mortal
pain, a shot. Then, silence.

CHAPTER XXX

"GROWING PAINS"

On the morning of February 28, 1850, Theodore Shillaber, with a number
of friends, made a visit to the former's leased land on the Rincon,
later known as Rincon Hill. Here, on the old government reserve, whose
guns had once flanked Yerba Buena Cove, Shillaber had secured a lease on
a commanding site which he planned to convert into a fashionable
residence section. What was his surprise, then, to find the scenic
promontory covered with innumerable rickety and squalid huts. A tall and
muscular young fellow with open-throated shirt and stalwart, hirsute
chest, swaggered toward him, fingering rather carelessly, it seemed to
Shillaber, the musket he held.

"Lookin' for somebody, stranger?" he inquired, meaningly.

Shillaber, somewhat taken aback, inquired by what right the members of
this colony held possession.

"Squatter's rights," returned the large youth, calmly, and spat
uncomfortably near to Shillaber's polished boots.

"And what are squatter's rights, may I ask?" said Shillaber, striving to
control his rising temper.

The youth tapped his rifle barrel. "Anyone that tries to dispossess
us'll soon find out," he returned gruffly, and, turning his back on the
visitors, he strode back toward his cabin.

"Wait," called Shillaber, red with wrath, "I notify you now, in the
presence of witnesses that if you and all your scurvy crew are not gone
bag and baggage within twentyfour hours, I'll have the authorities
dispossess you and throw you into jail for trespassing."

The large young man halted and presented a grinning face to his
threatener. He did not deign to reply, but, as though he had given a
signal, shrill cackles of laughter broke out in a dozen places.

Shillaber, who was a choleric man, shook his fist at them. He was too
angry for speech.

Shillaber had more than his peck of tr