McWilliams gave a little jerk of his head toward one of them. “Judd Morgan,” his lips framed without making a sound. Bannister nodded. “Been tanking up all day,” Mac added. “Otherwise his tongue would not be shooting off so reckless.” A silence had fallen over the assembly save for the braggarts at the bar. Men looked at each other, and then furtively at Bannister. For Morgan, ignorant of who was sitting quietly with his back to him at the faro-table, was venting his hate of Bannister and McWilliams. “Both in the same boat. Did y’u see how Mac ran to help him to-day? Both waddies. Both rustlers. Both train robbers. Sho! I got through putting a padlock on me mouth. Man to man, I’m as good as either of them—damn sight better. I wisht they was here, one or both; I wisht they would step up here and fight it out. Bannister’s a false alarm, and that foreman of the Lazy D—” His tongue stumbled over a blur of vilification that ended with a foul mention of Miss Messiter. Instantly two chairs crashed to the floor. Two pair of gray eyes met quietly. “My quarrel, Bann,” said Jim, in a low, even voice. The other nodded. “I’ll see y’u have a clear field.” The man who was with Morgan suddenly whispered in his ear, and the latter slewed his head in startled fear. Almost instantly a bullet clipped past McWilliams’s shoulder. Morgan had fired without waiting for the challenge he felt sure was at hand. Once—twice the foreman’s revolver made answer. Morgan staggered, slipped down to the floor, a bullet crashing through the chandelier as he fell. For a moment his body jerked. Then he rolled over and lay still. The foreman’s weapon covered him unwaveringly, but no more steadily than Bannister’s gaze the man who had come in with him who lay lifeless on the floor. The man looked at the lifeless thing, shuddered, and backed out of the saloon. “I call y’u all to witness that my friend killed him in self-defense,” said Bannister evenly. “Y’u all saw him fire first. Mac did not even have his gun out.” “That’s right,” agreed one, and another added: “He got what was coming to him.” “He sure did,” was the barkeeper’s indorsement. “He came in hunting trouble, but I reckon he didn’t want to be accommodated so prompt.” “Y’u’ll find us at the Gimlet Butte House if we’re wanted for this,” said Bannister. “We’ll be there till morning.” But once out of the gambling-house McWilliams drew his friend to one side. “Do y’u know who that was I killed?” “Judd Morgan, foreman before y’u at the Lazy D.” “Yes, but what else?” “What do y’u mean?” “I mean that next to your cousin Judd was leader of that Shoshone-Teton bunch.” “How do y’u know?” “I suspected it a long time, but I knew for sure the day that your cousin held up the ranch. The man that was in charge of the crowd outside was Morgan. I could swear to it. I knew him soon as I clapped eyes to him, but I was awful careful to forget to tell him I recognized him.”