Pierre, waving the liquor away, said quietly to the girl: "You wish to go
back to your father, to Jimmy Throng?" He then gave her Throng's
message, and added: "He sits there rocking in the big chair and coughing
--coughing! And then there's the picture on the wall upstairs and the
little ivory brush--"
She put out her hands towards him. "I hate them all here," she said.
"I never knew them. They forced me away. I have no father but Jimmy
Throng. I will not stay," she flashed out in sudden anger to the others;
"I'll kill myself and all of you before I marry that Borotte."
Pierre could hear a man tramping about upstairs. Caleb knocked on the
stove-pipe, and called to him to come down. Pierre guessed it was
Borotte. This would add one more factor to the game. He must move at
once. He suddenly slipped a pistol into the girl's hand, and with a
quick word to her, stepped towards the door. The elder brother sprang
between--which was what he looked for. By this time every man had a
weapon showing, snatched from wall and shelf.
Pierre was cool. He said: "Remember, I am for the law. I am not one
man. You are thieves now; if you fight and kill, you will get the rope,
every one. Move from the door, or I'll fire. The girl comes with me."
He had heard a door open behind him, now there was an oath and a report,
and a bullet grazed his cheek and lodged in the wall beyond.
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