Trapped and helpless as he was under that menacing gun, he was possessed by a determination to defend himself against the accusation, and to teach Phil Acton that there was a limit to the insult he would endure, even in the name of friendship.

To this end his only hope was to trap his foreman with words, as he had caught Yavapai Joe.

At a game of words Honorable Patches was no unskilled novice.

Controlling his anger, he said coolly, with biting sarcasm, while he looked at the cowboy with a mocking sneer, "You don't propose to take any chances, do you--holding up an unarmed man ?" Patches saw by the flush that swept over Phil's cheeks how his words bit.
"It doesn't pay to take chances with your kind," retorted the foreman hotly.
"No," mocked Patches, "but it will pay big, I suppose, for the great 'Wild Horse Phil' to be branded as a sneak and a coward who is afraid to face an unarmed man unless he can get the drop on him ?" Phil was goaded to madness by the cool, mocking words.

With a reckless laugh, he slipped his weapon into the holster and sprang to the ground.
At the same moment Patches and Joe lowered their hands, and Joe, unnoticed by either of the angry men, took a few stealthy steps toward his horse.
Phil, deliberately folding his arms, stood looking at Patches.
"I'll just call that bluff, you sneakin' calf stealer," he said coolly.
"Now, unlimber that gun of yours, and get busy." Angry as he was, Patches felt a thrill of admiration for the man, and beneath his determination to force Phil Acton to treat him with respect, he was proud of his friend who had answered his sneering insinuation with such fearlessness.