The Fighting Shepherdess

In a night of surprises this seemed the climax. What did it mean, since there had not been the slightest hint that Toomey and Prentiss were not the warmest of friends? In the dramatic silence each could hear his neighbor breathe.

Toomey looked stunned, then, as he recovered himself, the vein in his temple swelled and his sallow face darkened to ugly belligerence.

"I don't understand this!" he cried, raising his voice as he endeavored to return Prentiss's steely gaze with one of defiance. "But I'll serve notice now that I'll have the commission to which I'm entitled, or I'll sue for it and tie the whole thing up!"

Gov'nor Sudds started to his feet to voice a hot protest, as did other leading citizens who saw the chance to rehabilitate their fortunes vanish at the threat, but they were overshadowed, overborne by the more vigorous personality of Mr. Teeters, who suddenly dominated the scene from the door of the dining room where he had been listening intently. As if no longer able to contain himself, Teeters strode forward, shaking at Toomey the finger of emphasis: "Then," he cried, "you'll do your suin' from a cell! If I hold in any longer I'm goin' to choke! I'm goin' to speak, if she won't." He motioned towards Kate. "I want these folks to know what that yella-back has been keepin' to himself all these years for some reason that only himself and the Almighty knows. He owned the gun that killed Mormon Joe! He sold it to the 'breed,' Mullendore! He could have proved Kate Prentiss's innocence any time he wanted to--and he kept his mouth shut! I'm no legal sharp, but I won't believe there ain't some law that'll put the likes o' him where he belongs."

Toomey shrank under the attack as though beneath actual blows; he seemed to contract beneath the focused gaze of eyes that contained anger, scorn, in some instances, incredulity. He looked for a moment as though he were going to faint, then he clutched the edge of the table cloth in a convulsive grip, and shouted with an attempt at his old braggadocio: "It's a lie!"

"It's the truth!" Teeters thundered, opposite. "Mullendore confessed. Anyhow, I've got other proof--the original owner of the gun who left it at your house when he was a kid. Feller--come out."

"Disston!" Toomey gasped as Hugh stepped from the semidusk of the corridor into the light. The thing he had feared most since some ugly perversity of his nature had kept him silent because of his dislike of Mormon Joe and Kate had come to pass.