Then Silent asked: "What news, Jordan ?" Jordan kept his regretful eyes a moment longer on his empty coffee cup.
"There ain't a pile to tell," he answered at last.

"I suppose you heard about what happened to the chap you beat up at Morgan's place the other day ?" "Who knows that _I_ beat him up ?" asked Silent sharply.
"Nobody," said Jordan, "but when I heard the description of the man that hit Whistling Dan with the chair, I knew it was Jim Silent." "What about Barry ?" asked Haines, but Jordan still kept his eyes upon the chief.
"They was sayin' pretty general," he went on, "that you _needed_ that chair, Jim.

Is that right ?" The other three glanced covertly to each other.

Silent's hand bunched into a great fist.
"He went loco.

I had to slam him.