ut up!" cried Big Jack, with strong disgust. "You're licked!"

Joe got to his feet. "Only by trickery!" he cried. "He wouldn't stand
up to me! I could have knocked him out any time. Everybody was against
me! It takes the heart out of a man." Tears threatened again.

General laughter greeted this.

"That's all right!" cried Joe furiously from the door. "I'll get you
yet!" He went out.

The others now began to crowd around Sam, congratulating him a little
sheepishly, slapping his back. A great, sweet calm filled Sam. This
was the moment he had dreamed of during his long days on the trail and
his lonely nights at Grier's Point.

He had made good. He was a man among men. They acknowledged it. It was
like a song inside him. The hideous wound that Bela had dealt him was
healed.

He glanced over his shoulder at her. From her corner she was gazing at
him as at a young god. Calm filled her breast, too. Joe was gone, and
her secret still safe. Surely after to-night, she thought, there would
be no need of keeping it.

They heard Joe climb into his wagon outside and curse at his horses.
Instead of turning into the road, he drove back to the door and pulled
up. Bela turned pale again.

Joe shouted through the doorway: "Anyhow, no woman keeps me!"

"Damn you! What do you mean?" cried Sam.

"You owe the clothes you wear to her, and the gun you carry! The
horses you drive are hers!"

"You lie!" cried Sam, springing toward the door.

Joe whipped up his horses. "Ask her!" he shouted back.

Sam whirled about and, seizing the wrist of the shrinking Bela,
dragged her out of her corner.

"Is it true," he demanded--"the horses? Answer me before them all!"

She fought for breath enough to lie.

He saw it. "If you lie to me again I'll kill you!" he cried. "Answer
me! Is it your team that I drive?"

His violence overbore her defences. "Yes," she said tremulously. "What
difference does it make?"

The men looked on, full of shamefaced curiosity at this unexpected
turn. One or two, more delicate-minded, went outside.

Sam's ghastly wound was torn wide open again. "What difference?" he
cried, white and blazing. "Oh, my God, it means you've made a fool of
me a second time! It means I've nerved myself and trained myself to
fight this brute only to find he's able to give me the laugh after
all!"

"Sam--you so poor, then," she murmured.

It was like oil on the flames. He flung off her beseeching hand. "I
didn't ask your help!