do you want?" he demanded angrily.

Smith stepped closer. "Any game you've got. I'll throw you left-handed,
Du Sang." With his right hand he snapped the dice under Du Sang's nose
and looked squarely into his eyes. "Got any Sugar Buttes money?"

Du Sang for an instant looked keenly back; his eyes contracted in that
time to a mere narrow slit; then, sudden as thought, he sprang back
into the corner. He knew now. This was the man who held the aces at
the barbecue, the railroad man--Whispering Smith. Kennedy, directly
across the table, watched the lightning-like move. For the first time
the crap-dealer looked impatiently up.

It was a showdown. No one watching the two men under the window
breathed for a moment. Whispering Smith, motionless, only watched the
half-closed eyes. "You can't shoot craps," he said coldly. "What can
you shoot, Pearline? You can't stop a man on horseback."

Du Sang knew he must try for a quick kill or make a retreat. He took
in the field at a glance. Kennedy's teeth gleamed only ten feet away,
and with his right hand half under his coat lapel he toyed with his
watch-chain. McCloud had moved in from the slot machine and stood at
the point of the table, looking at Du Sang and laughing at him.
Whispering Smith threw off all pretence. "Take your hand away from
your gun, you albino! I'll blow your head off left-handed if you pull!
Will you get out of this town to-night? If you can't drop a man in the
saddle at two hundred and fifty yards, what do you think you'd look
like after a break with me? Go back to the whelp that hired you, and
tell him when he wants a friend of mine to send a man that can shoot.
If you are within twenty miles of Medicine Bend at daylight I'll rope
you like a fat cow and drag you down Front Street!"

Du Sang, with burning eyes, shrank narrower and smaller into his
corner, ready to shoot if he had to, but not liking the chances. No
man in Williams Cache could pull or shoot with Du Sang, but no man in
the mountains had ever drawn successfully against the man that faced
him.

Whispering Smith saw that he would not draw. He taunted him again in
low tones, and, backing away, spoke laughingly to McCloud. While
Kennedy covered the corner, Smith backed to the door and waited for
the two to join him. They halted a moment at the door, then they
backed slowly up the steps and out into the street.

There was no talk till they reached the Wickiup office. "Now, will
some of you tell me