ding ring.
"You seem kind of busy."

Muller blinked at him. He had apparently not yet found his spectacles, but
he had in the meanwhile come upon his axe, and now stood very straight,
with the long haft reaching to his waist.

"Ja," he said. "Mine house I build."

"Well," said the man in the embroidered jacket, "I fancy you're wasting
time. Asked anybody's leave to cut that lumber, or put it up?"

"Mine friend," said Muller, smiling, "when it is nod necessary I ask
nodings of any man."

"Then," said the horseman drily, as he turned to his companions, "I fancy
that's where you're wrong. Boys, we'll take him along in case Torrance
would like to see him. I guess you'll have to walk home, Jim."

A man dismounted and led forward his horse with a wrench upon the bridle
that sent it plunging. "Get your foot in the stirrup, Hamburg, and I'll
hoist you up," he said.

Muller stood motionless, and the horseman in deerskin glancing round in
his direction saw his daughter for the first time. He laughed; but there
was something in his black eyes that caused the Teuton's fingers to close
a trifle upon the haft of the axe.

"You'll have to get down, Charlie, as well as Jim," he said. "Torrance has
his notions, or Coyote might have carried Miss Hamburg that far as well.
Sorry to hurry you, Hamburg, but I don't like waiting."

Muller stepped back a pace, and the axe-head flashed as he moved his hand;
while, dazzled by the beam it cast, the half-tamed broncho rose with hoofs
in the air. Its owner smote it on the nostrils with his fist, and the pair
sidled round each other--the man with his arm drawn back, the beast with
laid-back ears--for almost a minute before they came to a standstill.

"Mine friend," said Muller, "other day I der pleasure have. I mine house
have to build."

"Get up," said the stockrider. "Ever seen anybody fire off a gun?"

Muller laughed softly, and glanced at the leader. "Der rifle," he said
drily. "I was at Sedan. To-day it is not convenient that I come."

"Hoist him up!" said the leader, and once more, while the other man moved
forward, Muller stepped back; but this time there was an answering flash
in his blue eyes as the big axe-head flashed in the sun.

"I guess we'd better hold on," said another man. "Look there, Mr.
Clavering."

He pointed to the bluff, and the leader's face darkened as he gazed, for
four men with axes were running down the slope, and they were lean and
wiry, with very grim