"Who does?"

"Dad."

"Put away your pop-gun and talk sense. I won't try to get away until
Jim Boone comes. I only fight men."

Even the anger and grief of the boy could not keep him from smiling.

"Just the same I'll keep the shooting-iron handy. Sit still. A gun
don't keep me from talking sense, does it? You're here to take Hal's
place. Hal!" The little wail told a thousand things, and Pierre,
shocked out of the thought of his own troubles, waited.

"My brother, Hal; he's dead; he died last night, and on the way back
dad found you and brought you to take Hal's place. _Hal's_ place!"

The accent showed how impossible it was that Hal's place could be
taken by any mortal man.

"I got orders to keep you here, but if I was to do what I'd like to
do, I'd give you the best horse on the place and tell you to clear
out. That's me!"

"Then do it."

"And face dad afterward?"

"Tell him I overpowered you. That would be easy; you a slip of a boy,