John Spencer stood staring at his son. Twice he raised his heavy fist to strike him. Twice he dropped it. Douglas, still pale and trembling, wondered at his own temerity. He always had been so terribly afraid of his father!
"So you don't intend to obey me any more!" sneered John.
"Sure I do," replied Douglas. "Only I'm not going to be licked into doing things blind, and I'm going to take care of Jude."
John uttered a contemptuous oath.
Doug swallowed with an effort but his steady temper was well under control and he went on, "I'd like to be as good a rider and rancher as you are and handle a gun as good as you do, but I'm hanged if I want my woman to be as scared of me as Mother is of you."
"Think yourself a man, eh? Well, I'll tell you, young fellow, as long as you live in that house, there, you'll obey and take the lickings I give you. My father built that house and I was born in it and so were you. He-men come from our breed and only a sissy refuses to obey. I may not be as well educated as my ancestors back East were, but I'm just as well trained as any of 'em and you're going to be too. We Spencers boss our own households. Go get me that whip!"
"No, sir, I won't do it," replied Douglas, a steady burning light in his eyes.
"You mean you'll stand up to me and fight after you saw the way I could handle you a few minutes ago?"
"Yes, sir, I do."
For a long moment there was silence, while Mrs. Spencer twisted her hands together and Doug and his
