"You stinking—"
"Shaddup," growled Channing, "and start explaining what this is for."
"I'm ruined!"
"Try it again and we'll ruin you some more," promised Don. "I have an aversion to being shot at."
"So have I," said Walt.
"He wasn't shooting at you," said Don.
"No, but I'd have been next, wouldn't I, Lazarus?"
"Laurus," snarled Towle.
"Now look," said Don in a voice that gave no idea of softness, "you're licked from here on in. This weapon of yours is now ours, and we'll hang it in the museum with other mementoes of our having been shot at. Luckily, this makes the first time that it has been close. Say—you aren't an old crony of Hellion Murdoch?"
"Never heard of him."