This being the case he prepared to make the best of an unpleasant situation which he felt he could not alter.

He ran his eye over the three men.
"I am sorry, gentlemen, but I reckon you have hold of the wrong person--" "Get down!" said one of the men briefly.
"I haven't any money, that's why I say you have hold of the wrong person." "We don't want your money." The unexpectedness of this reply somewhat disturbed Norton.
"What do you want, then ?" he asked.
"We got a word to say to you." "I can hear it in the saddle." "Get down!" repeated the man, a surly, bull-necked fellow.

"Come--hurry up!" he added.
Norton hesitated for an instant, then swung himself out of the saddle and stood in the road confronting the spokesman of the party.
"Now, what do you wish to say to me ?" he asked.
"Just this--you keep away from Belle Plain." "You go to hell!" said Norton promptly.

The man glowered heavily at hire through the gathering gloom of twilight.
"We want your word that you'll keep away from Belle Plain," he said with sullen insistence.
"Well, you won't get it!" responded Norton with quiet decision.
"We won't ?" "Certainly you won't!" Norton's eyes began to flash.

He wondered if these were Tom Ware's emissaries.