o it, and no man ain't a goin' to do it! He's the only man
on this range that can stand up to me,' I told you, 'and I'm goin' to
save him to fight!' That's what I said to you. Well, he'll come after
me when I take his woman away from him--he'll come after me so hard
he'll make the ground shake like a train--and he'll fight me for her,
a fight that men will remember! We'll roar like the wind, him and me,
when we stand up and fight for his woman that I took away from him
this night."

Reid drew away from him, seeming to contract upon himself against the
door, and whether Swan read it Mackenzie could not tell, but he could
see from the window the sickness of fear spread over Reid's pale
face.

"You ain't got no gun on you," Swan mocked, taking joy from that
moment. "Hell! my old woman can lick you, and I'm goin' to make her do
it. Then I'll take that feller's woman away from you and kick you to
hell out of here!"

Swan turned to Hertha, who had left her chair on his first threatening
move toward Reid. She had advanced a little way into the room, a wild
fury in her face against the man who had bargained to bring another
woman between her and her fierce, harsh-handed lord. Swan took her by
the arm, his hand at her back as if to give her courage.

"Go on--lick him--choke him the way I showed you how to choke a man!"

Swan clapped his hands, stamping his foot sharply, as he had clapped
and stamped to urge on the dog against Mackenzie that day they fought
on the range. And like a dog that has strained on a leash the woman
leaped, flinging herself upon Reid with a wild, high-shrilling cry.

Reid tried to guard his face against her fury, attempted to grapple
her arms and hold her. She broke away, clawing his face, screaming her
maniacal cry. In a moment they were a whirling tangle of arms,
wild-flying hair, swaying bodies bent in fierce attack and desperate
defense. The furious creature had Reid by the throat in the grip Swan
had taught her, strangling out his life.

Reid clung to her wrists, struggling to tear her hands from his
throat, thrashing wildly about before the closed door, his head
striking it now as the woman flung him, now his shoulders as she bent
him to force him to the floor.

Swan stood by, leaning forward in a pose of deep interest, deep
satisfaction, savage enjoyment, his loose-hanging arms at his sides,
his long mustaches down beside his mouth. He said nothing to encourage
his woman in her mad combat