"I have been working with Brodie," shouted Gratton. "If I go on with him now, with him and the men with him, six or eight of them taking what he gives them either in money or in curses and orders--if, I say, I chip in with him against you, what will the inevitable end be, I ask you? Look at the odds----" "The inevitable end," said King sternly, "will be that they'll pick your bones and kick you out." "I demand to know what word Gaynor sent----" "Will you have him go, Mark?" said Gloria. "He--sickens me." King, unleashed by her words, took a quick step forward. "Gratton," he said, "you'd better go." Gratton, rising to fresh fury, shouted at him: "And leave you and her here? Alone? All night----" King bore down upon him and struck him across the mouth, hurling him back so that Gratton tripped and fell. Gloria rose and stood watching, terrified and yet fascinated. She saw Gratton crawl to his feet; his hand went out to the table to draw himself up; it found one of the heavy bronze book-ends; the fingers gripped it so that the tendons stood out like cords. She could see the faces of both men, Gratton's twitching and vindictive, King's immobile, looking at once calm and terribly stern. If there were two Glorias within her, one of them fled now; the other watched with quick bright eyes and gloried in the man who had come at her hour of direst need; one vanished, afraid, the other felt a little thrill go singing through her blood. And though that bronze block, were it hurled at King's head, might have been the death of him, she was not once in doubt as to the end of this conflict. There before her eyes a man contended with a manikin. "Drop that, Gratton! Do you hear me? Drop it, I say!" He even drew closer while he spoke. In his voice was assurance that he would be obeyed; in his look was the promise of death or near-death, to be meted out swiftly and relentlessly for disobedience. Gratton, like a man in a daze, hesitated. King's hand shot out swiftly, gripping his wrist. There was a sudden jerk and the bit of bronze crashed to the floor. "You'll go now!" "Yes, I'll go. But----" "On your way, then!" "But----" "Shut up!" A tremor not to be repressed shook King's voice. "And go before I----Just go!" Gratton caught up his hat, stood for a moment plucking at his lip and staring at Gloria, and then turned and went out. Strangely, only now that he had gone, did Gloria shiver and look after him fearfully. The man here had seemed so futile and yet she had seen that last look, so filled with malevolence that in his wake the room seemed steeped in menace. King must have had somewhat the same sort of an impression; he went to the door and called out loudly: "Jim! Oh, Jim." Jim's voice answered from the cabin: "Comin', Mark." "Gratton's outside. I've told him to clear out. Give him about two minutes, and if he's still here throw a gun on him and run him off the place."