“‘Yes, she did,’ sez the gurl.  ‘She wuz goin’ back.  Home!  Takin’ me home.  But the caravan wuz attacked by Injuns.  An’ all but me wor massacred.”

“Durade cut short the gurl’s spache.  If I iver seen a reptoile it wuz thin.

“‘Lee, they both left me,’ he hisses.  ’I tracked them.  I lost the mother, but caught the daughter.’

“Thin thot Durade lost his spache fer a minnit, foamin’ at the mouth wid rage.  If yez niver seen a greaser mad thin yez niver seen the rale thin’.  His face changed yaller an’ ould an’ wrinkled, wid spots of red.  His lip curled up loike a wolf’s, an’ his eyes—­they wint down to little black points of hell’s fire.  He wuz crazy.

“‘Look at her!’ he yelled.  ‘Allie Lee!  Flesh an’ blood yez can’t deny!  Her baby! ...  An’ she’s been my slave—­my dog to beat an’ kick!  She’s been through Benton!  A toy fer the riff-raff of the camps! ...  She’s as vile an’ black an’ lost as her treacherous mother!’

“Allison Lee shrunk under thot shame.  But the gurl!  Lord! she niver looked wot she was painted by thot devil.  She stood white an’ still, like an angel above judgment.

“Durade drew one of thim little derringers.  An’ sudden he hild it on Lee, hissin’ now in his greaser talk.  I niver seen sich hellish joy on a human face.  Murder was nothin’ to thot look.

“Jist thin I seen Neale an’ Slingerland, an’, by Gawd!  I thought I’d drop.  They seemed to loom up.  The girl screamed wild-loike an’ she swayed about to fall.  Neale leaped in front of Lee.

“‘Durade!’ he spit out, an’ dom’ me if I didn’t expect to see the roof fly off.”

McDermott wiped his moist face and tipped his empty glass to his lips, and swallowed hard.  His light-blue eyes held a glint.

“Gineral,” he went on, “yez know Neale.  How big he is!  Wot nerve he’s got!  There niver wor a mon his equal on the U. P. ‘ceptin’ Casey....  But me, nor any wan, nor yez, either, ever seen Neale loike he wuz thin.  He niver hesitated an inch, but wint roight fer Durade.  Any dom’ fool, even a crazy greaser, would hev seen his finish in Neale.  Durade changed quick from hot to cold.  An’ he shot Neale.

“Neale laughed.  Funny ringin’ sort of laugh, full of thot same joy Durade hed sung out to Lee.  Hate an’ love of blood it wor.  Yez would hev thought Neale felt wonderful happy to sthop a bullet.

“Thin his hand shot out an’ grabbed Durade....  He jerked him off his feet an’ swung him round.  The little derringer flew, an’ Sandy McDermott wuz the mon who picked it up.  It’ll be Neale’s whin I see him....  Durade jabbered fer help.  But no wan come.  Thot big trapper Slingerland stood there with two guns, an’ shure he looked bad.  Neale slung Durade around, spillin’ some fellars who didn’t dodge quick, an’ thin he jerked him up backwards.

“An’ Durade come up with a long knife in the one hand he had free.

“Neale yelled, ‘Lee, take the gurl out!’