“The barroom became perfectly still, except for the slow breaths I heard.  There wasn’t any movement anywhere.  That queer gray came to Blome’s face again.  He might again have been stone.  I thought, an’ I’ll gamble every one else watchin’ thought, Blome would draw an’ get killed in the act.  But he never moved.  Steele had cowed him.  If Blome had been heated by drink, or mad, or anythin’ but what he was just then, maybe he might have throwed a gun.  But he didn’t.  I’ve heard of really brave men gettin’ panicked like that, an’ after seein’ Steele I didn’t wonder at Blome.

“‘You see, Blome, you don’t want to meet me, for all your talk,’ went on the Ranger.  ’You thought you did, but that was before you faced the man you intended to kill.  Blome, you’re one of these dandy, cock-of-the-walk four-flushers.  I’ll tell you how I know.  Because I’ve met the real gun-fighters, an’ there never was one of them yet who bragged or talked.  Now don’t you go round blowin’ any more.’

“Then Steele deliberately stepped forward an’ slapped Blome on one side of his face an’ again on the other.

“’Keep out of my way after this or I’m liable to spoil some of your dandy looks.’

“Blome got up an’ walked straight out of the place.  I had my eyes on him, kept me from seein’ Steele.  But on hearin’ somethin’, I don’t know what, I turned back an’ there Steele had got a long arm on Bo Snecker, who was tryin’ to throw a gun.

“But he wasn’t quick enough.  The gun banged in the air an’ then it went spinnin’ away, while Snecker dropped in a heap on the floor.  The table was overturned, an’ March, the other rustler, who was on that side, got up, pullin’ his gun.  But somebody in the crowd killed him before he could get goin’.  I didn’t see who fired that shot, an’ neither did anybody else.  But the crowd broke an’ run.  Steele dragged Bo Snecker down to jail an’ locked him up.”

Morton concluded his narrative, and then evidently somewhat dry of tongue, he produced knife and tobacco and cut himself a huge quid.  “That’s all, so far, to-day, Russ, but I reckon you’ll agree with me on the main issue—­Steele’s game’s opened.”

I had felt the rush of excitement, the old exultation at the prospect of danger, but this time there was something lacking in them.  The wildness of the boy that had persisted in me was gone.

“Yes, Steele has opened it and I’m ready to boost the game along.  Wait till I see him!  But Morton, you say someone you don’t know played a hand in here and killed March.”

“I sure do.  It wasn’t any of our men.  Zimmer was outside.  The others were at different places.”

“The fact is, then, Steele has more friends than we know, perhaps more than he knows himself.”

“Right.  An’ it’s got the gang in the air.  There’ll be hell to-night.”

“Steele hardly expects to keep Snecker in jail, does he?”

“I can’t say.  Probably not.  I wish Steele had put both Blome and Snecker out of the way.  We’d have less to fight.”