“But you're going to come our way?” he demanded.

“Of course.”

He turned back to Larry. “You hear that? You leave Maggie alone!”

Larry did not answer, though his temper was rising. He looked over Barney's head at Maggie's father.

“Jimmie,” he remarked in his same even voice, “anything more you'd like to say?”

“I'm through.”

“Then,” said Larry, “better lead your new commander-in-chief out of here, or I'll carry him out and spank him.”

“What's that?” snarled Barney.

“Get out!” Larry ordered, in a voice suddenly like steel.

Barney's fist swung viciously at Larry's head. It did not land, because Larry's head was elsewhere. Larry did not take advantage of the opening to strike back, but as the fist flashed by he seized the wrist, and in the same instant he seized the other wrist. The next moment he held Barney helpless in a twisting, torturing grip that he had learned from one of his non-Christian friends at the Y.M.C.A.