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 removed it, and put it into his pocket. Again he faced King, one open hand upheld, palm outward.

"Open that door!" shouted Bent, his eyes glaring, a bit of white foam on his lips. "What are you trying to do?"

"I am trying to prevent you from making a fool of yourself," answered the other calmly. "Listen to me a minute. Have you any regard whatever for Miss Harting?"

"Have I? I'm going to protect her from that wolf. Let me out!"

"Do you want to involve her in a scandal? In your present state of blind madness, you would rush after them and attack the man upon the street. A common scrap over a girl on Sunday—you know what that means. The burg would buzz with it; the young lady would feel herself humiliated and disgraced. Do you think you would gain favor in her eyes by such folly? Besides, you are no match for that fellow; you ought to know it, for you saw him whip Jock Hoover, and Hoover's no slouch of a fighter. You would not make a very heroic figure in that sort of an affair."

"I can fight, if necessary," panted Benton. "I discharged two men last week because they left work to attend a ball game against my orders. One of them was a dago, and he came back, drunk,