An' if I had a shred of good name left in Grass Valley you dishonored it....

Y'u made him think I was your girl! Damn y'u! I ought to kill y'u....

Eat your words now--take them back--or I'll cripple y'u for life!" Ellen lowered the cocked rifle toward his feet.
"Shore, Ellen, I take back--all I said," gulped Bruce.

He gazed at the quivering rifle barrel and then into the face of Ellen's father.
Instinct told him where his real peril lay.
Here the cool and tactful Daggs showed himself master of the situation.
"Heah, listen!" he called.

"Ellen, I reckon Bruce was drunk an' out of his haid.