"Let him go, Hec'! Let him go!"
MacFarlane's voice gave Hector back his sanity. But, shifting his grip, he tossed the trader, screaming, above his head and held him there, his eyes roving furiously 'round the room.
Then, taking ten great strides, he hurled him crashing but unhurt into a pile of hardware.
"I could kill you!" was in his mind. But instead he said, "Lie there, you dog; lie there!"
Ignoring the crowd utterly—it parted in his path with awed silence—he went to the door, flung it wide open.
The crash of the heavy portal slamming to aroused the crowd to tumult.
VI
Within twenty-four hours the whiskey rumour was as dead as a last year's calendar and Hector was back upon his pedestal.
Mention of his name thenceforward produced this invariable comment:
"Play straight with Adair. He's an easy-goin' bird, but a ring-tailed devil when he's roused!"