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“I’ll tell yer what it means,” shouted Dan Mosely derisively. “He’s afraid! That’s all there is to it. He’s a cur, an’ he don’t dare to put up his hands agin’ me!”

Douglas looked searchingly at Gordon, and his great hands twitched, as if he longed to get into battle himself.

“Is that so, Gordon? Do ye mean t’ tell me that ye’re afraid?”

“Yes, Douglas,” returned the young man, after a pause, during which it could be seen he was fighting with himself. “I’m—I’m afraid!”

Mackenzie Douglas was silent for a second. Then, after raising his hand on high, as if calling Heaven to witness the awful disgrace, he pointed a long finger at Bob Gordon, saying, in a tone of denunciation and scorn:

“Hoot awa’! You—you—coward!”

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It is hardly necessary to relate that Douglas took the part Bob Gordon should have played, and gave the burly Dan Mosely the trouncing of his life. That followed, as a matter of course. The fellow had to be punished for insulting the singer, and if Gordon would not do the work, why, Mackenzie Douglas was only too pleased to take on the job.