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Rh against the sky. He came slouching down close by the line of dusty mullein stalks, and almost reached the foot of the gully.

Marden leaped out into the road, cocking the gun as he stood up straight. At the sight of this squat creature, all the years of smothered hatred blazed ungovernably.

"Stop!" he cried, dry and harsh.

The sailor jumped back with a motion of his arm like a boxer guarding.

"Hold on! Hold on, Mard!" he cried in a strangely little voice. "I did n't—it was n't us, honest!"

Each man, looking at the other, knew that the lie would not serve. And Lee saw death in the round black muzzle and the blazing eyes behind it. Let it go to his credit that he bellowed like a bull and hurled himself forward with great gnarled hands grappling in the air.

The gun roared in the stifled gully.

In the cloud of smoke the sailor reeled, with a gray face and his open mouth a black circle; then his bulk collapsed like a telescope, or rather like an empty meal sack that