Tom, with a signal, caused him to halt.

"Throw him out, I say!" yelled Duff shrilly. "Duff, I'm afraid you're
making a fool of yourself," remarked Tom, stepping forward, smiling
cheerfully.

Yet another murmur, now growing to a yell, rose from some of the men--a
few of the men, too, who were not Mexicans, and a half-hearted rush was
made in the young engineer's direction.

"Throw him out! Hustle the boy out!" Duff urged.

"Stop! Stop right in your tracks!" thundered Tom Reade, taking still
another step toward the now angrier crowd. "Men, listen to me, and
you'll get a proper understanding of this affair. Jim Duff wants me
thrown out of here--"

"Yes! And out you'll go!" roared a voice from the rear of the crowd.

"That's a question that the next few minutes will settle," Tom rejoined,
with a smile. "If Jim Duff wants me thrown out of here, why don't you
men tell him to do it himself?"

The force of this suggestion, with the memory of what they had recently
seen, struck home with many of the men. A shout of laughter went up,
followed by yells of:

"That's right--dead right!"

"Sail in, Jim!"