"You men are leaving to-day," said Steve hastily. "Just as fast as you can pull your freight. Blenham and Woods are going with you. All told there are above a dozen of you and only one of me. But I've got Woods's gun and Blenham's and I happen to mean business. This is my outfit; if you fellows start anything and there is trouble, why you're on the wrong side of the fence. Besides, you're apt to get hurt. Blenham and Woods are quitting cold; so far as I can see you boys would be a pack of fools to make more of a stand than they are doing."
The man who had laughed and who now thrust his face forward through his companions, grinned widely and announced:
"We mightn't worry none about where Blenham an' Joe get off. But we ain't had our breakfasts yet!"
"You don't get any breakfast on my land!" said Steve sharply, more afraid just now of having to do with good nature than with anger.
For if the dozen men there simply laughed and stepped out and dispersed, his hands would be tied; he couldn't shoot down a lot of joking men and he knew it. And they would know it.
"You're on your way right now! You, there!" This to a big, stoop-shouldered young giant in the fore, blue-eyed, straw-haired, northern-looking. "Step out this way, Sandy! And step lively."
The northerner shrugged and looked belligerent. Steve moistened his lips.
"You can't bluff me—" began the northerner.
And Steve knew that, having gone this far, he could not stop at bluffing. And he knew that he must not seem to hesitate.
"I can shoot as straight as most men," he said smoothly. "But sometimes I miss an inch or two at this distance. You men who don't want to take any unnecessary chances had better give Sandy a little more elbow-room!"