Handsome and headstrong he was; and Bill
shook his head over the combination which made for trouble in that
land where the primal instincts lay all on the surface; where men
looked askance at the one who drew oftenest the glances of the women
and who walked erect and unafraid in the midst of the lawlessness.
Jack Allen was fast making enemies, and no one knew it better than
Bill.
When the young fellow disappeared, Bill looked again at the shifting
crowd upon which his eyes were wont to rest with the speculative gaze
of a farmer who leans upon the fence that bounds his land, and regards
his wheat-fields ripening for the sickle. He liked Jack, and the soul
of him was bitter with the bitterness that is the portion of maturity,
when it must stand by and see youth learn by the pangs of experience
that fire will burn most agonizingly if you hold your hand in the
blaze.
One of his night bartenders came up; and Bill, dismissing Jack from
his mind, with a grunt of disgust, went in to talk over certain
changes which he meant to make in the bar as soon as he could get
material and carpenter together upon the spot.
He was still fussing with certain of the petty details that make or
mar the smooth running of an establishment like his, when his ear,
trained to detect the first note of discord in the babble which filled
his big room by night, caught an ominous note in the hum of the street
crowd outside.
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