"This isn't your house," retorted de Spain angrily. "This house is Nan's, not yours. When she orders me out I'll go. Bring her down," he thundered, raising his voice to shut off Duke, who had redoubled his abuse. "Bring her into this room," he repeated. "We'll see whether she wants to get married. If she does, I'll marry her. If she doesn't, and you've been putting this up to force her into marrying, so help me God, you'll be carried out of this room to-night, or I will." He whirled on her uncle with an accusing finger. "You used to be a man, Duke. I've taken from you here to-night what I would take from no man on earth but for the sake of Nan Morgan. She asked me never to touch you. But if you've gone into this thing to trap your own flesh and blood, your dead brother's girl, living under your own protection, you don't deserve mercy, and to-night you shall have what's coming to you. I've fought you both fair, too fair. Now--before I leave--it's my girl or both of you." He was standing near Druel. Without taking his eyes off the other men, he caught Druel with his left hand by the coat collar, and threw him half-way across the room. "Get up-stairs, you old carrion, and tell Nan Morgan, Henry de Spain is here to talk to her." Druel, frightened to death, scrambled into the hall. He turned on de Spain. "I'm an officer of the law. I arrest you for trespass and assault," he shouted, shaking with fear. "Arrest _me_?" echoed de Spain contemptuously. "You scoundrel, if you don't climb those stairs I'll send you to the penitentiary the day I get back to town. Up-stairs with your message!" "It isn't necessary," said a low voice in the hall, and with the words Nan appeared in the open doorway. Her face was white, but there was no sign of haste or panic in it; de Spain choked back a breath; to him she never had looked in her silence so awe-inspiring. He addressed her, holding his left hand out with his plea. "Nan," he said, controlling his voice, "these men were getting ready to marry you to Gale Morgan. No matter how you feel toward me now, you know me well enough to know that all I want is the truth: Was this with your consent?" She stepped into the line of fire between her cousin and de Spain as she answered. "No. You know I shall never marry any man but you. This vile bully," she turned a little to look at her angry cousin, "has influenced Uncle Duke--who never before tried to persecute or betray me--into joining him in this thing. They never could have dragged me into it alive. And they've kept me locked for three days in a room up-stairs, hoping to break me down." "Stand back, Nan." If de Spain's words of warning struck her with terror of a situation she could not control, she did not reveal it. "No," she said resolutely. "If anybody here is to be shot, I'll be first. Uncle Duke, you have always protected me from Gale Morgan; now you join hands with him. You drive me from this roof because I don't know how I can protect myself under it."