Then suddenly above the good natured babble came a harsh word.

Instantly the other voices ceased, and the men of the group centered their glances upon the range boss, for the harsh word had come from him.

He had been talking to a man named Tucson and it was to the latter that he had now spoken.
"There's a heap of rattlers in this country," he had said.
Evidently the statement was irrelevant, for Tucson's glance at Leviatt's face was uncomprehending.

But Leviatt did not wait for an answer.
"A man might easily claim to have been bit by one of them," he continued, his voice falling coldly.
The men of the group sat in a tense silence, trying to penetrate this mystery that had suddenly silenced their talk.

Steady eyes searched out each face in an endeavor to discover the man at whom the range boss was talking.