Cash, with visible reluctance, complied. There was a suppressed madness of excitement in Jim’s voice as he said to Sir John Applegate: "Oblige me by relieving the gentleman of his guns; it will tire him to hold it up there too long." Sir John obeyed. It was a critical moment—one never knew which way a crowd in a saloon would veer, and there might have been a riot if Cash had been more popular. As it happened there was a laugh at Jim’s words. Sir John reached for the guns. Cash, gaunt and terrible to look at, stood still while they were taken from him. The pressure of the muzzle at his side caused him to loosen his final reluctant finger. "Delighted, charmed, I’m sure," Sir John agreed. Jim, still covering Cash with his gun, drove him up against the bar. Those of the crowd who knew him realized that they were seeing a new man in the Englishman. He was conscious of Diana’s luminous face back of him, of Henry’s gray countenance close to her as he quietly expostulated with her. The crowd swung close to the new boss. This was what they wanted. They believed he would prove the new leader for Maverick. "Every man’s hands on the bar," the Englishman called, and he and his men covered the crowd at these words. "I ask you," Jim quietly said, "to drink with me to the President of the United States." Men who had cursed their President, defied the laws of the country that had elected him, and who were fugitives from the justice of their land were touched by the simple and tactful toast. All glasses were raised. They were about to drink, but the first sentence was followed by the words: "And to her Gracious Majesty, the Queen." This time Jim stood ready to shoot; but it was unnecessary—the crowd echoed the toast. Why not? The Englishman was right. Their country—then his. Not a bad sort. So the murmurs went around. Suddenly Hawkins said, as he watched Sir John: "Your little glass-eyed friend don’t drink." Sir John’s glass was still untouched. "Oh yes, he’s goin’ to drink," Shorty cut in, as he crossed to the group near the table. "Ain’t nobody excused on a formal show-down like this!" Bill called. But Sir John, carried away by indignation at Jim’s daring to propose that toast to the country and the sovereign he believed Jim had so dishonored, vehemently answered: "I’m an officer in her Majesty’s service, and, by Jove! I won’t drink with a man who fled from England after robbing the widows and orphans of the Queen’s soldiers, and you can do what you jolly well like about it." All eyes were turned on Jim. Would he kill the stranger? Henry held Diana by the arm. Jim grew pale under the strain of the moment’s intensity. Cash was the first to speak. "What do you say to that?" he drawled, after a prolonged whistle.