1 files changed, 7829 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/2546.txt b/2546.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6f63cd8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/2546.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7829 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hopalong Cassidy's Rustler Round-Up, by 
+Clarence Edward Mulford
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Hopalong Cassidy's Rustler Round-Up
+       Bar-20
+
+Author: Clarence Edward Mulford
+
+Release Date: March, 2001  [Etext #2546]
+Posting Date: November 13, 2009
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOPALONG CASSIDY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Andrew Heath
+
+
+
+
+
+HOPALONG CASSIDY'S RUSTLER ROUND-UP
+
+or
+
+BAR-20
+
+
+By Clarence Edward Mulford
+
+
+
+1906
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. Buckskin
+
+The town lay sprawled over half a square mile of alkali plain, its main
+Street depressing in its width, for those who were responsible for its
+inception had worked with a generosity born of the knowledge that they
+had at their immediate and unchallenged disposal the broad lands of
+Texas and New Mexico on which to assemble a grand total of twenty
+buildings, four of which were of wood. As this material was scarce, and
+had to be brought from where the waters of the Gulf lapped against the
+flat coast, the last-mentioned buildings were a matter of local pride,
+as indicating the progressiveness of their owners.
+
+These creations of hammer and saw were of one story, crude and
+unpainted; their cheap weather sheathing, warped and shrunken by the
+pitiless sun, curled back on itself and allowed unrestricted entrance to
+alkali dust and air. The other shacks were of adobe, and reposed in that
+magnificent squalor dear to their owners, Indians and Mexicans.
+
+It was an incident of the Cattle Trail, that most unique and stupendous
+of all modern migrations, and its founders must have been inspired with
+a malicious desire to perpetrate a crime against geography, or else they
+reveled in a perverse cussedness, for within a mile on every side lay
+broad prairies, and two miles to the east flowed the indolent waters of
+the Rio Pecos itself. The distance separating the town from the river
+was excusable, for at certain seasons of the year the placid stream
+swelled mightily and swept down in a broad expanse of turbulent, yellow
+flood.
+
+Buckskin was a town of one hundred inhabitants, located in the valley of
+the Rio Pecos fifty miles south of the Texas-New Mexico line. The
+census claimed two hundred, but it was a well-known fact that it was
+exaggerated. One instance of this is shown by the name of Tom Flynn.
+Those who once knew Tom Flynn, alias Johnny Redmond, alias Bill Sweeney,
+alias Chuck Mullen, by all four names, could find them in the census
+list. Furthermore, he had been shot and killed in the March of the
+year preceding the census, and now occupied a grave in the young but
+flourishing cemetery. Perry's Bend, twenty miles up the river, was
+cognizant of this and other facts, and, laughing in open derision at
+the padded list, claimed to be the better town in all ways, including
+marksmanship.
+
+One year before this tale opens, Buck Peters, an example for the more
+recent Billy the Kid, had paid Perry's Bend a short but busy visit. He
+had ridden in at the north end of Main Street and out at the south. As
+he came in he was fired at by a group of ugly cowboys from a ranch known
+as the C 80. He was hit twice, but he unlimbered his artillery, and
+before his horse had carried him, half dead, out on the prairie, he had
+killed one of the group. Several citizens had joined the cowboys
+and added their bullets against Buck. The deceased had been the best
+bartender in the country, and the rage of the suffering citizens can
+well be imagined. They swore vengeance on Buck, his ranch, and his
+stamping ground.
+
+The difference between Buck and Billy the Kid is that the former never
+shot a man who was not trying to shoot him, or who had not been warned
+by some action against Buck that would call for it. He minded his own
+business, never picked a quarrel, and was quiet and pacific up to
+a certain point. After that had been passed he became like a raging
+cyclone in a tenement house, and storm-cellars were much in demand.
+
+"Fanning" is the name of a certain style of gun play not unknown among
+the bad men of the West. While Buck was not a bad man, he had to rub
+elbows with them frequently, and he believed that the sauce for the
+goose was the sauce for the gander. So be bad removed the trigger of his
+revolver and worked the hammer with the thumb of the "gun hand" or the
+heel of the unencumbered hand. The speed thus acquired was greater than
+that of the more modern double-action weapon. Six shots in a few seconds
+was his average speed when that number was required, and when it is
+thoroughly understood that at least some of them found their intended
+bullets it is not difficult to realize that fanning was an operation of
+danger when Buck was doing it.
+
+He was a good rider, as all cowboys are, and was not afraid of anything
+that lived. At one time he and his chums, Red Connors and Hopalong
+Cassidy, had successfully routed a band of fifteen Apaches who wanted
+their scalps. Of these, twelve never hunted scalps again, nor anything
+else on this earth, and the other three returned to their tribe with
+the report that three evil Spirits had chased them with "wheel guns"
+(cannons).
+
+So now, since his visit to Perry's Bend, the rivalry of the two towns
+had turned to hatred and an alert and eager readiness to increase the
+inhabitants of each other's graveyard. A state of war existed, which for
+a time resulted in nothing worse than acrimonious suggestions. But the
+time came when the score was settled to the satisfaction of one side, at
+least.
+
+Four ranches were also concerned in the trouble. Buckskin was surrounded
+by two, the Bar 20 and the Three Triangle. Perry's Bend was the
+common point for the C 80 and the Double Arrow. Each of the two ranch
+contingents accepted the feud as a matter of course, and as a matter
+of course took sides with their respective towns. As no better class of
+fighters ever lived, the trouble assumed Homeric proportions and insured
+a danger zone well worth watching.
+
+Bar-20's northern line was C 80's southern one, and Skinny Thompson took
+his turn at outriding one morning after the season's round-up. He was to
+follow the boundary and turn back stray cattle. When he had covered the
+greater part of his journey he saw Shorty Jones riding toward him on a
+course parallel to his own and about long revolver range away. Shorty
+and he had "crossed trails" the year before and the best of feelings did
+not exist between them.
+
+Shorty stopped and stared at Skinny, who did likewise at Shorty. Shorty
+turned his mount around and applied the spurs, thereby causing his
+indignant horse to raise both heels at Skinny. The latter took it all
+in gravely and, as Shorty faced him again, placed his left thumb to his
+nose, wiggling his fingers suggestively. Shorty took no apparent notice
+of this but began to shout:
+
+"Yu wants to keep yore busted-down cows on yore own side. They was all
+over us day afore yisterday. I'm goin' to salt any more what comes over,
+and don't yu fergit it, neither."
+
+Thompson wigwagged with his fingers again and shouted in reply: "Yu c'n
+salt all yu wants to, but if I ketch yu adoin' it yu won't have to work
+no more. An' I kin say right here thet they's more C 80 cows over here
+than they's Bar-20's over there."
+
+Shorty reached for his revolver and yelled, "Yore a liar!"
+
+Among the cowboys in particular and the Westerners in general at that
+time, the three suicidal terms, unless one was an expert in drawing
+quick and shooting straight with one movement, were the words "liar,"
+"coward," and "thief." Any man who was called one of these in earnest,
+and he was the judge, was expected to shoot if he could and save his
+life, for the words were seldom used without a gun coming with them. The
+movement of Shorty's hand toward his belt before the appellation reached
+him was enough for Skinny, who let go at long range--and missed.
+
+
+The two reports were as one. Both urged their horses nearer and fired
+again. This time Skinny's sombrero gave a sharp jerk and a hole appeared
+in the crown. The third shot of Skinny's sent the horse of the other to
+its knees and then over on its side. Shorty very promptly crawled behind
+it and, as he did so, Skinny began a wide circle, firing at intervals as
+Shorty's smoke cleared away.
+
+Shorty had the best position for defense, as he was in a shallow coule,
+but he knew that he could not leave it until his opponent had either
+grown tired of the affair or had used up his ammunition. Skinny knew it,
+too. Skinny also knew that he could get back to the ranch house and lay
+in a supply of food and ammunition and return before Shorty could cover
+the twelve miles he had to go on foot.
+
+Finally Thompson began to head for home. He had carried the matter as
+far as he could without it being murder. Too much time had elapsed now,
+and, besides, it was before breakfast and he was hungry. He would go
+away and settle the score at some time when they would be on equal
+terms.
+
+He rode along the line for a mile and chanced to look back. Two C 80
+punchers were riding after him, and as they saw him turn and discover
+them they fired at him and yelled. He rode on for some distance and
+cautiously drew his rifle out of its long holster at his right leg.
+Suddenly he turned around in the saddle and fired twice. One of his
+pursuers fell forward on the neck of his horse, and his comrade turned
+to help him. Thompson wig-wagged again and rode on, reaching the ranch
+as the others were finishing their breakfast.
+
+At the table Red Connors remarked that the tardy one had a hole in his
+sombrero, and asked its owner how and where he had received it.
+
+"Had a argument with C 80 out'n th' line."
+
+"Go 'way! Ventilate enny?"
+
+"One."
+
+"Good boy, sonny! Hey, Hopalong, Skinny perforated C 80 this mawnin'!"
+
+Hopalong Cassidy was struggling with a mouthful of beef. He turned his
+eyes toward Red without ceasing, and grinning as well as he could under
+the circumstances managed to grunt out "Gu--," which was as near to
+"Good" as the beef would allow.
+
+Lanky Smith now chimed in as he repeatedly stuck his knife into a
+reluctant boiled potato, "How'd yu do it, Skinny?"
+
+"Bet he sneaked up on him," joshed Buck Peters; "did yu ask his pardin,
+Skinny?"
+
+"Ask nuthin'," remarked Red, "he jest nachurly walks up to C 80 an' sez,
+'Kin I have the pleasure of ventilatin' yu?' an' C So he sez, 'If yu do
+it easy like,' sez he. Didn't he, Thompson?"
+
+"They'll be some ventilatin' under th' table if yu fellows don't lemme
+alone; I'm hungry," complained Skinny.
+
+"Say, Hopalong, I bets yu I kin clean up C 80 all by my lonesome,"
+announced Buck, winking at Red.
+
+"Yah! Yu onct tried to clean up the Bend, Buckie, an' if Pete an' Billy
+hadn't afound yu when they come by Eagle Pass that night yu wouldn't be
+here eatin' beef by th' pound," glancing at the hard-working Hopalong.
+"It was plum lucky fer yu that they was acourtin' that time, wasn't it,
+Hopalong?" suddenly asked Red. Hopalong nearly strangled in his efforts
+to speak. He gave it up and nodded his head.
+
+"Why can't yu git it straight, Connors? I wasn't doin' no courtin', it
+was Pete. I runned into him on th' other side o' th' pass. I'd look fine
+acourtin', wouldn't I?" asked the downtrodden Williams.
+
+Pete Wilson skillfully flipped a potato into that worthy's coffee,
+spilling the beverage of the questionable name over a large expanse of
+blue flannel shirt. "Yu's all right, yu are. Why, when I meets yu, yu
+was lost in th' arms of yore ladylove. All I could see was yore feet. Go
+an' git tangled up with a two hundred and forty pound half-breed squaw
+an' then try to lay it onter me! When I proposed drownin' yore
+troubles over at Cowan's, yu went an' got mad over what yu called th'
+insinooation. An' yu shore didn't look any too blamed fine, neither."
+
+"All th' same," volunteered Thompson, who had taken the edge from his
+appetite, "we better go over an' pay C 80 a call. I don't like what
+Shorty said about saltin' our cattle. He'll shore do it, unless I camps
+on th' line, which same I hain't hankerin' after."
+
+"Oh, he wouldn't stop th' cows that way, Skinny; he was only afoolin',"
+exclaimed Connors meekly.
+
+"Foolin' yore gran'mother! That there bunch'll do anything if we wasn't
+lookin'," hotly replied Skinny.
+
+"That's shore nuff gospel, Thomp. They's sore fer mor'n one thing. They
+got aplenty when Buck went on th' warpath, an they's hankerin' to git
+square," remarked Johnny Nelson, stealing the pie, a rare treat, of his
+neighbor when that unfortunate individual was not looking. He had
+it halfway to his mouth when its former owner, Jimmy Price, a boy of
+eighteen, turned his head and saw it going.
+
+"Hi-yi! Yu clay-bank coyote, drap thet pie! Did yu ever see such a
+son-of-a-gun fer pie?" he plaintively asked Red Connors, as he grabbed
+a mighty handful of apples and crust. "Pie'll kill yu some day, yu
+bob-tailed jack! I had an uncle that died onct. He et too much pie an'
+he went an' turned green, an so'll yu if yu don't let it alone."
+
+"Yu ought'r seed th' pie Johnny had down in Eagle Flat," murmured Lanky
+Smith reminiscently. "She had feet that'd stop a stampede. Johnny
+was shore loco about her. Swore she was the finest blossom that
+ever growed." Here he choked and tears of laughter coursed down his
+weather-beaten face as he pictured her. "She was a dainty Mexican, about
+fifteen han's high an' about sixteen han's around. Johnny used to chalk
+off when he hugged her, usen't yu, Johnny? One night when he had got
+purty well around on th' second lap he run inter a feller jest startin'
+out on his fust. They hain't caught that Mexican yet."
+
+Nelson was pelted with everything in sight. He slowly wiped off the
+pie crust and bread and potatoes. "Anybody'd think I was a busted grub
+wagon," he grumbled. When he had fished the last piece of beef out of
+his ear he went out and offered to stand treat. As the round-up was
+over, they slid into their saddles and raced for Cowan's saloon at
+Buckskin.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. The Rashness of Shorty
+
+Buckskin was very hot; in fact it was never anything else. Few people
+were on the streets and the town was quiet. Over in the Houston hotel
+a crowd of cowboys was lounging in the barroom. They were very quiet--a
+condition as rare as it was ominous. Their mounts, twelve in all, were
+switching flies from their quivering skins in the corral at the rear.
+Eight of these had a large C 80 branded on their flanks; the other four,
+a Double Arrow.
+
+In the barroom a slim, wiry man was looking out of the dirty window
+up the street at Cowan's saloon. Shorty was complaining, "They shore
+oughter be here now. They rounded up last week." The man nearest assured
+him that they would come. The man at the window turned and said, "They's
+yer now."
+
+
+In front of Cowan's a crowd of nine happy-go-lucky, daredevil riders
+were sliding from their saddles. They threw their reins over the heads
+of their mounts and filed in to the bar. Laughter issued from the open
+door and the clink of glasses could be heard. They stood in picturesque
+groups, strong, self-reliant, humorous, virile. Their expensive
+sombreros were pushed far back on their heads and their hairy chaps were
+covered with the alkali dust from their ride.
+
+Cowan, bottle in hand, pushed out several more glasses. He kicked a dog
+from under his feet and looked at Buck. "Rounded up yet?" he inquired.
+
+"Shore, day afore yisterday," came the reply. The rest were busy
+removing the dust from their throats, and gradually drifted into groups
+of two or three. One of these groups strolled over to the solitary card
+table, and found Jimmy Price resting in a cheap chair, his legs on the
+table.
+
+"I wisht yu'd extricate yore delicate feet from off'n this hyar table,
+James," humbly requested Lanky Smith, morally backed up by those with
+him.
+
+"Ya-as, they shore is delicate, Mr. Smith," responded Jimmy without
+moving.
+
+"We wants to play draw, Jimmy," explained Pete.
+
+"Yore shore welcome to play if yu wants to. Didn't I tell yu when yu
+growed that mustache that yu didn't have to ask me any more?" queried
+the placid James, paternally.
+
+"Call 'em off, sonny. Pete sez he kin clean me out. Anyhow, yu kin have
+the fust deal," compromised Lanky.
+
+"I'm shore sorry fer Pete if he cayn't. Yu don't reckon I has to have
+fust deal to beat yu fellers, do yu? Go way an' lemme alone; I never
+seed such a bunch fer buttin' in as yu fellers."
+
+Billy Williams returned to the bar. Then he walked along it until he
+was behind the recalcitrant possessor of the table. While his aggrieved
+friends shuffled their feet uneasily to cover his approach, he tiptoed
+up behind Jimmy and, with a nod, grasped that indignant individual
+firmly by the neck while the others grabbed his feet. They carried him,
+twisting and bucking, to the middle of the street and deposited him in
+the dust, returning to the now vacant table.
+
+Jimmy rested quietly for a few seconds and then slowly arose, dusting
+the alkali from him.
+
+"Th' wall-eyed piruts," he muttered, and then scratched his head for
+a way to "play hunk." As he gazed sorrowfully at the saloon he heard a
+snicker from behind him. He, thinking it was one of his late tormentors,
+paid no attention to it. Then a cynical, biting laugh stung him. He
+wheeled, to see Shorty leaning against a tree, a sneering leer on his
+flushed face. Shorty's right hand was suspended above his holster,
+hooked to his belt by the thumb--a favorite position of his when
+expecting trouble.
+
+"One of yore reg'lar habits?" he drawled.
+
+Jimmy began to dust himself in silence, but his lips were compressed to
+a thin white line.
+
+"Does they hurt yu?" pursued the onlooker.
+
+Jimmy looked up. "I heard tell that they make glue outen cayuses,
+sometimes," he remarked.
+
+Shorty's eyes flashed. The loss of the horse had been rankling in his
+heart all day.
+
+"Does they git yu frequent?" he asked. His voice sounded hard.
+
+"Oh, 'bout as frequent as yu lose a cayuse, I reckon," replied Jimmy
+hotly.
+
+Shorty's hand streaked to his holster and Jimmy followed his lead.
+Jimmy's Colt was caught. He had bucked too much. As he fell Shorty ran
+for the Houston House.
+
+Pistol shots were common, for they were the universal method of
+expressing emotions. The poker players grinned, thinking their victim
+was letting off his indignation. Lanky sized up his hand and remarked
+half audibly, "He's a shore good kid."
+
+The bartender, fearing for his new beveled, gilt-framed mirror, gave a
+hasty glance out the window. He turned around, made change and remarked
+to Buck, "Yore kid, Jimmy, is plugged." Several of the more credulous
+craned their necks to see, Buck being the first. "Judas!" he shouted,
+and ran out to where Jimmy lay coughing, his toes twitching. The saloon
+was deserted and a crowd of angry cowboys surrounded their chum-aboy.
+Buck had seen Shorty enter the door of the Houston House and he swore.
+"Chase them C 80 and Arrow cayuses behind the saloon, Pete, an' git
+under cover."
+
+Jimmy was choking and he coughed up blood. "He's shore--got me. My--gun
+stuck," he added apologetically. He tried to sit up, but was not able
+and he looked surprised. "It's purty-damn hot-out here," he suggested.
+Johnny and Billy carried him in the saloon and placed him by the table,
+in the chair he had previously vacated. As they stood up he fell across
+the table and died.
+
+Billy placed the dead boy's sombrero on his head and laid the refractory
+six-shooter on the table. "I wonder who th' dirty killer was." He looked
+at the slim figure and started to go out, followed by Johnny. As he
+reached the threshold a bullet zipped past him and thudded into the
+frame of the door. He backed away and looked surprised. "That's Shorty's
+shootin'--he allus misses 'bout that much." He looked out and saw Buck
+standing behind the live oak that Shorty had leaned against, firing at
+the hotel. Turning around he made for the rear, remarking to Johnny that
+"they's in th' Houston." Johnny looked at the quiet figure in the chair
+and swore softly. He followed Billy. Cowan, closing the door and taking
+a buffalo gun from under the bar, went out also and slammed the rear
+door forcibly.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. The Argument
+
+Up the street two hundred yards from the Houston House Skinny and Pete
+lay hidden behind a bowlder. Three hundred yards on the other side of
+the hotel Johnny and Billy were stretched out in an arroyo. Buck was
+lying down now, and Hopalong, from his position in the barn belonging to
+the hotel, was methodically dropping the horses of the besieged, a job
+he hated as much as he hated poison. The corral was their death trap.
+Red and Lanky were emitting clouds of smoke from behind the store,
+immediately across the street from the barroom. A buffalo gun roared
+down by the plaza and several Sharps cracked a protest from different
+points. The town had awakened and the shots were dropping steadily.
+
+Strange noises filled the air. They grew in tone and volume and then
+dwindled away to nothing. The hum of the buffalo gun and the sobbing
+pi-in-in-ing of the Winchesters were liberally mixed with the sharp
+whines of the revolvers.
+
+There were no windows in the hotel now. Raw furrows in the bleached wood
+showed yellow, and splinters mysteriously sprang from the casings. The
+panels of the door were producing cracks and the cheap door handle
+flew many ways at once. An empty whisky keg on the stoop boomed out
+mournfully at intervals and finally rolled down the steps with a
+rumbling protest. Wisps of smoke slowly climbed up the walls and seemed
+to be waving defiance to the curling wisps in the open.
+
+
+Pete raised his shoulder to refill the magazine of his smoking rifle and
+dropped the cartridges all over his lap. He looked sheepishly at Skinny
+and began to load with his other hand.
+
+"Yore plum loco, yu are. Don't yu reckon they kin hit a blue shirt
+at two hundred?" Skinny cynically inquired. "Got one that time," he
+announced a second later.
+
+"I wonder who's got th' buffalo," grunted Pete. "Mus' be Cowan," he
+replied to his own question and settled himself to use his left hand.
+
+"Don't yu git Shorty; he's my meat," suggested Skinny.
+
+"Yu better tell Buck--he ain't got no love fer Shorty," replied Pete,
+aiming carefully.
+
+The panic in the corral ceased and Hopalong was now sending his regrets
+against the panels of the rear door. He had cut his last initial in the
+near panel and was starting a wobbly "H" in its neighbor. He was in a
+good position. There were no windows in the rear wall, and as the door
+was a very dangerous place he was not fired at.
+
+He began to get tired of this one-sided business and crawled up on the
+window ledge, dangling his feet on the outside. He occasionally sent a
+bullet at a different part of the door, but amused himself by annoying
+Buck.
+
+"Plenty hot down there?" he pleasantly inquired, and as he received no
+answer he tried again. "Better save some of them cartridges fer some
+other time, Buck."
+
+Buck was sending 45-70's into the shattered window with a precision that
+presaged evil to any of the defenders who were rash enough to try to
+gain the other end of the room.
+
+Hopalong bit off a chew of tobacco and drowned a green fly that was
+crawling up the side of the barn. The yellow liquid streaked downward a
+short distance and was eagerly sucked up by the warped boards.
+
+A spurt of smoke leaped from the battered door and the bored Hopalong
+promptly tumbled back inside. He felt of his arm, and then, delighted
+at the notice taken of his artistic efforts, shot several times from
+a crack on his right. "This yer's shore gittin' like home," he gravely
+remarked to the splinter that whizzed past his head. He shot again at
+the door and it sagged outward, accompanied by the thud of a falling
+body. "Pies like mother used to make," he announced to the loft as he
+slipped the magazine full of .45-70'S. "An' pills like popper used to
+take," he continued when he had lowered the level of the water in his
+flask.
+
+He rolled a cigarette and tossed the match into the air, extinguishing
+it by a shot from his Colt.
+
+"Got any cigarettes, Hoppy?" said a voice from below.
+
+"Shore," replied the joyous puncher, recognizing Pete; "how'd yu git
+here?"
+
+"Like a cow. Busy?"
+
+"None whatever. Comin' up?"
+
+"Nope. Skinny wants a smoke too."
+
+Hopalong handed tobacco and papers down the hole. "So long."
+
+"So long," replied the daring Pete, who risked death twice for a smoke.
+
+The hot afternoon dragged along and about three o'clock Buck held up an
+empty cartridge belt to the gaze of the curious Hopalong. That observant
+worthy nodded and threw a double handful of cartridges, one by one, to
+the patient and unrelenting Buck, who filled his gun and piled the few
+remaining ones up at his side. "Th' lives of mice and men gang aft all
+wrong," he remarked at random.
+
+"Th' son-of-a-gun's talkin' Shakespeare," marveled Hopalong. "Satiate
+any, Buck?" he asked as that worthy settled down to await his chance.
+
+"Two," he replied, "Shorty an' another. Plenty damn hot down here," he
+complained. A spurt of alkali dust stung his face, but the hand that
+made it never made another. "Three," he called. "How many, Hoppy?"
+
+ "One. That's four.  Wonder if th' others got any?"
+
+"Pete said Skinny got one," replied the intent Buck.
+
+"Th' son-of-a-gun, he never said nothin' about it, an' me a fillin' his
+ornery paws with smokin'." Hopalong was indignant.
+
+"Bet yu ten we don't git 'em afore dark," he announced.
+
+"Got yu. Go yu ten more I gits another," promptly responded Buck.
+
+"That's a shore cinch. Make her twenty."
+
+"She is."
+
+"Yu'll have to square it with Skinny, he shore wanted Shorty plum' bad,"
+Hopalong informed the unerring marksman.
+
+"Why didn't he say suthin' about it? Anyhow, Jimmy was my bunkie."
+
+Hopalong's cigarette disintegrated and the board at his left received
+a hole. He promptly disappeared and Buck laughed. He sat up in the loft
+and angrily spat the soaked paper out from between his lips.
+
+"All that trouble fer nothin', th' white-eyed coyote," he muttered.
+Then he crawled around to one side and fired at the center of his "C."
+Another shot hurtled at him and his left arm fell to his side. "That's
+funny--wonder where th' damn pirut is?" He looked out cautiously and saw
+a cloud of smoke over a knothole which was situated close up under the
+eaves of the barroom; and it was being agitated. Some one was blowing at
+it to make it disappear. He aimed very carefully at the knot and fired.
+He heard a sound between a curse and a squawk and was not molested any
+further from that point.
+
+"I knowed he'd git hurt," he explained to the bandage, torn from the
+edge of his kerchief, which he carefully bound around his last wound.
+
+Down in the arroyo Johnny was complaining.
+
+"This yer's a no good bunk," he plaintively remarked.
+
+"It shore ain't--but it's th' best we kin find," apologized Billy.
+
+"That's th' sixth that feller sent up there. He's a damn poor shot,"
+observed Johnny; "must be Shorty."
+
+"Shorty kin shoot plum' good--tain't him," contradicted Billy.
+
+"Yas--with a six-shooter. He's off'n his feed with a rifle," explained
+Johnny.
+
+"Yu wants to stay down from up there, yu ijit," warned Billy as the
+disgusted Johnny crawled up the bank. He slid down again with a welt on
+his neck.
+
+"That's somebody else now. He oughter a done better'n that," he said.
+
+Billy had fired as Johnny started to slide and he smoothed his aggrieved
+chum. "He could onct, yu means."
+
+"Did yu git him?" asked the anxious Johnny, rubbing his welt. "Plum'
+center," responded the business-like Billy. "Go up agin, mebby I kin git
+another," he suggested tentatively.
+
+"Mebby you kin go to blazes. I ain't no gallery," grinned the now
+exuberant owner of the welt.
+
+"Who's got the buffalo?" he inquired as the great gun roared.
+
+"Mus' be Cowan. He's shore all right. Sounds like a bloomin' cannon,"
+replied Billy. "Lemme alone with yore fool questions, I'm busy," he
+complained as his talkative partner started to ask another. "Go an' git
+me some water--I'm alkalied. An' git some .45's, mine's purty near gone."
+
+Johnny crawled down the arroyo and reappeared at Hopalong's barn.
+
+As he entered the door a handful of empty shells fell on his hat and
+dropped to the floor. He shook his head and remarked, "That mus' be that
+fool Hopalong."
+
+"Yore shore right. How's business?" inquired the festive Cassidy.
+
+"Purty fair. Billy's got one. How many's gone?"
+
+"Buck's got three, I got two and Skinny's got one. That's six, an' Billy
+is seven. They's five more," he replied.
+
+"How'd yu know?" queried Johnny as he filled his flask at the horse
+trough.
+
+"Because they's twelve cayuses behind the hotel. That's why."
+
+"They might git away on 'em," suggested the practical Johnny.
+
+"Can't. They's all cashed in."
+
+"Yu said that they's five left," ejaculated the puzzled water carrier.
+
+"Yah; yore a smart cuss, ain't yu?"
+
+Johnny grinned and then said, "Got any smokin'?" Hopalong looked
+grieved. "I ain't no store. Why don't yu git generous and buy some?"
+
+He partially filled Johnny's hand, and as he put the sadly depleted bag
+away he inquired, "Got any papers?"
+
+"Nope."
+
+"Got any matches?" he asked cynically.
+
+"Nope."
+
+"Kin yu smoke 'em?" he yelled, indignantly.
+
+"Shore nuff," placidly replied the unruffled Johnny. "Billy wants some
+.45-70's."
+
+Hopalong gasped. "Don't he want my gun, too?"
+
+"Nope. Got a better one. Hurry up, he'll git mad." Hopalong was a very
+methodical person. He was the only one of his crowd to carry a second
+cartridge strap. It hung over his right shoulder and rested on his
+left hip. His waist belt held thirty cartridges for the revolvers. He
+extracted twenty from that part of the shoulder strap hardest to get at,
+the back, by simply pulling it over his shoulder and plucking out the
+bullets as they came into reach.
+
+"That's all yu kin have. I'm Buck's ammernition jackass," he explained.
+"Bet yu ten we gits 'em afore dark"--he was hedging.
+
+"Any fool knows that. I'll take yu if yu bets th' other way," responded
+Johnny, grinning. He knew Hopalong's weak spot.
+
+"Yore on," promptly responded Hopalong, who would bet on anything.
+
+
+"Well, so long," said Johnny as he crawled away.
+
+"Hey, yu, Johnny!" called out Hopalong, "don't yu go an' tell anybody I
+got any pills left. I ain't no ars'nal."
+
+Johnny replied by elevating one foot and waving it. Then he disappeared.
+
+Behind the store, the most precarious position among the besiegers,
+Red Connors and Lanky Smith were ensconced and commanded a view of the
+entire length of the barroom. They could see the dark mass they knew to
+be the rear door and derived a great amount of amusement from the spots
+of light which were appearing in it.
+
+They watched the "C" (reversed to them) appear and be completed. When
+the wobbly "H" grew to completion they laughed heartily. Then the
+hardwood bar had been dragged across the field of vision and up to the
+front windows, and they could only see the indiscriminate holes which
+appeared in the upper panels at frequent intervals.
+
+Every time they fired they had to expose a part of themselves to a
+return shot, with the result that Lanky's forearm was seared its entire
+length. Red had been more fortunate and only had a bruised ear.
+
+They laboriously rolled several large rocks out in the open, pushing
+them beyond the shelter of the store with their rifles. When they had
+crawled behind them they each had another wound. From their new position
+they could see Hopalong sitting in his window. He promptly waved his
+sombrero and grinned.
+
+They were the most experienced fighters of all except Buck, and were
+saving their shots. When they did shoot they always had some portion of
+a man's body to aim at, and the damage they inflicted was considerable.
+They said nothing, being older than the rest and more taciturn, and
+they were not reckless. Although Hopalong's antics made them laugh, they
+grumbled at his recklessness and were not tempted to emulate him. It was
+noticeable, too, that they shoved their rifles out simultaneously and,
+although both were aiming, only one fired. Lanky's gun cracked so close
+to the enemy's that the whirr of the bullet over Red's head was merged
+in the crack of his partner's reply.
+
+When Hopalong saw the rocks roll out from behind the store he grew very
+curious. Then he saw a flash, followed instantly by another from the
+second rifle. He saw several of these follow shots and could sit in
+silence no longer. He waved his hat to attract attention and then
+shouted, "How many?" A shot was sent straight up in the air and he
+notified Buck that there were only four left.
+
+The fire of these four grew less rapid--they were saving their
+ammunition. A pot shot at Hopalong sent that gentleman's rifle hurtling
+to the ground. Another tore through his hat, removing a neat amount of
+skin and hair and giving him a lifelong part. He fell back inside
+and proceeded to shoot fast and straight with his revolvers, his head
+burning as though on fire. When he had vented the dangerous pressure
+of his anger he went below and tried to fish the rifle in with a long
+stick. It was obdurate, so he sent three more shots into the door, and,
+receiving no reply, ran out around the corner of his shelter and grasped
+the weapon. When half way back he sank to the ground. Before another
+shot could be fired at him with any judgment a ripping, spitting rifle
+was being frantically worked from the barn. The bullets tore the door
+into seams and gaps; the lowest panel, the one having the "H" in it,
+fell inward in chunks. Johnny had returned for another smoke.
+
+Hopalong, still grasping the rifle, rolled rapidly around the corner of
+the barn. He endeavored to stand, but could not. Johnny, hearing rapid
+and fluent swearing, came out.
+
+"Where'd they git yu?" he asked.
+
+ "In th' off leg.  Hurts like blazes.  Did yu git him?"
+
+"Nope. I jest come fer another cig; got any left?"
+
+"Up above. Yore gall is shore apallin'. Help me in, yu two-laigged
+jackass."
+
+"Shore. We'll shore pay our 'tentions to that door. She'll go purty
+soon--she's as full of holes as th' Bad Lan's," replied Johnny. "Git
+aholt an' hop along, Hopalong."
+
+He helped the swearing Hopalong inside, and then the lead they pumped
+into the wrecked door was scandalous. Another panel fell in and
+Hopalong's "C" was destroyed. A wide crack appeared in the one above it
+and grew rapidly. Its mate began to gape and finally both were driven
+in. The increase in the light caused by these openings allowed Red and
+Lanky to secure better aim and soon the fire of the defenders died out.
+
+Johnny dropped his rifle and, drawing his six-shooter, ran out and
+dashed for the dilapidated door, while Hopalong covered that opening
+with a fusilade.
+
+As Johnny's shoulder sent the framework flying inward he narrowly missed
+sudden death. As it was he staggered to the side, out of range, and
+dropped full length to the ground, flat on his face. Hopalong's rifle
+cracked incessantly, but to no avail. The man who had fired the shot was
+dead. Buck got him immediately after he had shot Johnny.
+
+Calling to Skinny and Red to cover him, Buck sprinted to where Johnny
+lay gasping. The bullet had struck his shoulder. Buck, Colt in hand,
+leaped through the door, but met with no resistance. He signaled to
+Hopalong, who yelled, "They's none left."
+
+The trees and rocks and gullies and buildings yielded men who soon
+crowded around the hotel. A young doctor, lately graduated, appeared. It
+was his first case, but he eased Johnny. Then he went over to Hopalong,
+who was now raving, and attended to him. The others were patched up
+as well as possible and the struggling young physician had his pockets
+crammed full of gold and silver coins.
+
+The scene of the wrecked barroom was indescribable. Holes, furrows,
+shattered glass and bottles, the liquor oozing down the walls of the
+shelves and running over the floor; the ruined furniture, a wrecked bar,
+seared and shattered and covered with blood; bodies as they had been
+piled in the corners; ropes, shells, hats; and liquor everywhere, over
+everything, met the gaze of those who had caused the chaos.
+
+Perry's Bend had failed to wipe out the score.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. The Vagrant Sioux
+
+
+Buckskin gradually readjusted itself to the conditions which had existed
+before its sudden leap into the limelight as a town which did things.
+The soiree at the Houston House had drifted into the past, and was
+now substantially established as an epoch in the history of the
+town. Exuberant joy gave way to dignity and deprecation, and to solid
+satisfaction; and the conversations across the bar brought forth
+parallels of the affair to be judged impartially--and the impartial
+judgment was, unanimously, that while there had undoubtedly been good
+fights before Perry's Bend had disturbed the local quiet, they were not
+quite up to the new standard of strenuous hospitality. Finally the heat
+blistered everything back into the old state, and the shadows continued
+to be in demand.
+
+One afternoon, a month after the reception of the honorable delegation
+from Perry's Bend, the town of Buckskin seemed desolated, and the earth
+and the buildings thereon were as huge furnaces radiating a visible
+heat, but when the blazing sun had begun to settle in the west it awoke
+with a clamor which might have been laid to the efforts of a zealous
+Satan. At this time it became the Mecca of two score or more joyous
+cowboys from the neighboring ranches, who livened things as those
+knights of the saddle could.
+
+In the scant but heavy shadow of Cowan's saloon sat a picturesque figure
+from whom came guttural, resonant rumblings which mingled in a spirit of
+loneliness with the fretful sighs of a flea-tormented dog. Both dog and
+master were vagrants, and they were tolerated because it was a matter of
+supreme indifference as to who came or how long they stayed as long as
+the ethics and the unwritten law of the cow country were inviolate. And
+the breaking of these caused no unnecessary anxiety, for justice was
+both speedy and sure.
+
+When the outcast Sioux and his yellow dog had drifted into town some few
+months before they had caused neither expostulation nor inquiry, as the
+cardinal virtue of that whole broad land was to ask a man no questions
+which might prove embarrassing to all concerned; judgment was of
+observation, not of history, and a man's past would reveal itself
+through actions. It mattered little whether he was an embezzler or the
+wild chip from some prosperous eastern block, as men came to the range
+to forget and to lose touch with the pampered East; and the range
+absorbed them as its own.
+
+
+
+A man was only a man as his skin contained the qualities necessary; and
+the illiterate who could ride and shoot and live to himself was far more
+esteemed than the educated who could not do those things. The more a man
+depends upon himself and the closer is his contact to a quick judgment
+the more laconic and even-poised he becomes. And the knowledge that he
+is himself a judge tends to create caution and judgment. He has no court
+to uphold his honor and to offer him protection, so he must be quick to
+protect himself and to maintain his own standing. His nature saved him,
+or it executed; and the range absolved him of all unpaid penalties of a
+careless past.
+
+He became a man born again and he took up his burden, the exactions of
+a new environment, and he lived as long as those exactions gave him the
+right to live. He must tolerate no restrictions of his natural rights,
+and he must not restrict; for the one would proclaim him a coward,
+the other a bully; and both received short shrifts in that land of the
+self-protected. The basic law of nature is the survival of the fittest.
+
+So, when the wanderers found their level in Buckskin they were not even
+asked by what name men knew them. Not caring to hear a name which might
+not harmonize with their idea of the fitness of things, the cowboys of
+the Bar-20 had, with a freedom born of excellent livers and fearless
+temperaments, bestowed names befitting their sense of humor and
+adaptability. The official title of the Sioux was By-and-by; the dog was
+known as Fleas. Never had names more clearly described the objects to be
+represented, for they were excellent examples of cowboy discernment and
+aptitude.
+
+In their eyes By-and-by was a man. He could feel and he could resent
+insults. They did not class him as one of themselves, because he did not
+have energy enough to demand and justify such classification. With them
+he had a right to enjoy his life as he saw fit so long as he did not
+trespass on or restrict the rights of others. They were not analytic
+in temperament, neither were they moralists. He was not a menace to
+society, because society had superb defenses. So they vaguely recognized
+his many poor qualities and clearly saw his few good ones. He could
+shoot, when permitted, with the best; no horse, however refractory, had
+ever been known to throw him; he was an adept at following the trails
+left by rustlers, and that was an asset; he became of value to the
+community; he was an economic factor.
+
+His ability to consume liquor with indifferent effects raised him
+another notch in their estimation. He was not always talking when some
+one else wished to--another count. There remained about him that stoical
+indifference to the petty; that observant nonchalance of the Indian;
+and there was a suggestion, faint, it was true, of a dignity common to
+chieftains. He was a log of grave deference which tossed on their sea of
+mischievous hilarity.
+
+He wore a pair of corduroy trousers, known to the care-free as "pants,"
+which were held together by numerous patches of what had once been
+brilliantly colored calico. A pair of suspenders, torn into two separate
+straps, made a belt for himself and a collar for his dog. The trousers
+had probably been secured during a fit of absent-mindedness on his part
+when their former owner had not been looking. Tucked at intervals in
+the top of the corduroys (the exceptions making convenient shelves for
+alkali dust) was what at one time had been a stiff-bosomed shirt. This
+was open down the front and back, the weight of the trousers on the belt
+holding it firmly on the square shoulders of the wearer, thus precluding
+the necessity of collar buttons. A pair of moccasins, beautifully worked
+with wampum, protected his feet from the onslaughts of cacti and the
+inquisitive and pugnacious sand flies; and lying across his lap was
+a repeating Winchester rifle, not dangerous because it was empty, a
+condition due to the wisdom of the citizens in forbidding any one to
+sell, trade or give to him those tubes of concentrated trouble, because
+he could get drunk.
+
+The two were contented and happy. They had no cares nor duties, and
+their pleasures were simple and easily secured, as they consisted of
+sleep and a proneness to avoid moving. Like the untrammeled coyote,
+their bed was where sleep overtook them; their food, what the night
+wrapped in a sense of security, or the generosity of the cowboys of the
+Bar-20. No tub-ridden Diogenes ever knew so little of responsibility or
+as much unadulterated content. There is a penalty even to civilization
+and ambition.
+
+When the sun had cast its shadows beyond By-and-by's feet the air became
+charged with noise; shouts, shots and the rolling thunder of madly
+pounding hoofs echoed flatly throughout the town. By-and-by yawned,
+stretched and leaned back, reveling in the semi-conscious ecstasy of the
+knowledge that he did not have to immediately get up. Fleas opened one
+eye and cocked an ear in inquiry, and then rolled over on his back,
+squirmed and sighed contentedly and long. The outfit of the Bar-20 had
+come to town.
+
+The noise came rapidly nearer and increased in volume as the riders
+turned the corner and drew rein suddenly, causing their mounts to slide
+on their haunches in ankle-deep dust.
+
+"Hullo, old Buck-with-th'-pants, how's yore liver?"
+
+"Come up an irrigate, old tank!"
+
+"Chase th' flea ranch an' trail along!"
+
+These were a few of the salutations discernible among the medley of
+playful yells, the safety valves of supercharged good-nature.
+
+"Skr-e-e!" yelled Hopalong Cassidy, letting off a fusillade of shots in
+the vicinity of Fleas, who rapidly retreated around the corner, where he
+wagged his tail in eager expectation. He was not disappointed, for a cow
+pony tore around in pursuit and Hopalong leaned over and scratched the
+yellow back, thumping it heartily, and, tossing a chunk of beef into the
+open jaws of the delighted dog, departed as he had come. The advent of
+the outfit meant a square meal, and the dog knew it.
+
+In Cowan's, lined up against the bar, the others were earnestly and
+assiduously endeavoring, with a promise of success, to get By-and-by
+drunk, which endeavors coincided perfectly with By-and-by's idea of the
+fitness of things. The fellowship and the liquor combined to thaw
+out his reserve and to loosen his tongue. After gazing with an air of
+injured surprise at the genial loosening of his knees he gravely handed
+his rifle with an exaggerated sweep of his arm, to the cowboy nearest
+him, and wrapped his arms around the recipient to insure his balance.
+The rifle was passed from hand to hand until it came to Buck Peters, who
+gravely presented it to its owner as a new gun.
+
+By-and-by threw out his stomach in an endeavor to keep his head in line
+with his heels, and grasping the weapon with both hands turned to Cowan,
+to whom he gave it.
+
+"Yu hab this un. Me got two. Me keep new un, mebby so." Then he loosened
+his belt and drank long and deep.
+
+A shadow darkened the doorway and Hopalong limped in. Spying By-and-by
+pushing the bottle into his mouth, while Red Connors propped him,
+he grinned and took out five silver dollars, which he jingled under
+By-and-by's eyes, causing that worthy to lay aside the liquor and
+erratically grab for the tantalizing fortune.
+
+"Not yet, sabe?" said Hopalong, changing the position of the money. "If
+yu wants to corral this here herd of simoleons yu has to ride a cayuse
+what Red bet me yu can't ride. Yu has got to grow on that there saddle
+and stayed growed for five whole minutes by Buck's ticker. I ain't
+a-goin' to tell yu he's any saw-horse, for yu'd know better, as yu
+reckons Red wouldn't bet on no losin' proposition if he knowed better,
+which same he don't. Yu straddles that four-laigged cloudburst an' yu
+gets these, sabe? I ain't seen th' cayuse yet that yu couldn't freeze
+to, an' I'm backin' my opinions with my moral support an' one month's
+pay."
+
+By-and-by's eyes began to glitter as the meaning of the words
+sifted through his befuddled mind. Ride a horse--five dollars--ride a
+five-dollars horse--horses ride dollars--then he straightened up and
+began to speak in an incoherent jumble of Sioux and bad English. He,
+the mighty rider of the Sioux; he, the bravest warrior and the greatest
+hunter; could he ride a horse for five dollars? Well, he rather thought
+he could. Grasping Red by the shoulder, he tacked for the door and
+narrowly missed hitting the bottom step first, landing, as it happened,
+in the soft dust with Red's leg around his neck. Somewhat sobered by the
+jar, he stood up and apologized to the crowd for Red getting in the way,
+declaring that Red was a "Heap good un," and that he didn't mean to do
+it.
+
+The outfit of the Bar-20 was, perhaps, the most famous of all from
+Canada to the Rio Grande. The foreman, Buck Peters, controlled a crowd
+of men (who had all the instincts of boys) that had shown no quarter
+to many rustlers, and who, while always carefree and easy-going (even
+fighting with great good humor and carelessness), had established the
+reputation of being the most reckless gang of daredevil gun-fighters
+that ever pounded leather. Crooked gaming houses, from El Paso
+to Cheyenne and from Phoenix to Leavenworth, unanimously and
+enthusiastically damned them from their boots to their sombreros, and
+the sheriffs and marshals of many localities had received from their
+hands most timely assistance--and some trouble. Wiry, indomitable,
+boyish and generous, they were splendid examples of virile manhood; and,
+surrounded as they were with great dangers and a unique civilization,
+they should not, in justice, be judged by opinions born of the
+commonplace.
+
+They were real cowboys, which means, public opinion to the contrary
+notwithstanding, that they were not lawless, nor drunken, shooting
+bullies who held life cheaply, as their kin has been unjustly pictured;
+but while these men were naturally peaceable they had to continually
+rub elbows with men who were not. Gamblers, criminals, bullies and the
+riffraff that fled from the protected East had drifted among them in
+great numbers, and it was this class that caused the trouble.
+
+The hardworking "cow-punchers" lived according to the law of the land,
+and they obeyed that greatest of all laws, that of self-preservation.
+Their fun was boisterous, but they paid for all the damage they
+inflicted; their work was one continual hardship, and the reaction of
+one extreme swings far toward the limit of its antithesis. Go back to
+the Apple if you would trace the beginning of self-preservation and the
+need.
+
+Buck Peters was a man of mild appearance, somewhat slow of speech and
+correspondingly quick of action, who never became flurried. His was the
+master hand that controlled, and his Colts enjoyed the reputation of
+never missing when a hit could have been expected with reason. Many
+floods, stampedes and blizzards had assailed his nerves, but he yet
+could pour a glass of liquor, held at arm's length, through a knothole
+in the floor without wetting the wood.
+
+Next in age came Lanky Smith, a small, undersized man of retiring
+disposition. Then came Skinny Thompson, six feet four on his bared
+soles, and true to his name; Hopalong described him as "th' shadow of a
+chalk mark." Pete Wilson, the slow-witted and very taciturn, and
+Billy Williams, the wavering pessimist, were of ordinary height and
+appearance. Red Connors, with hair that shamed the name, was the
+possessor of a temper which was as dry as tinder; his greatest weakness
+was his regard for the rifle as a means of preserving peace. Johnny
+Nelson was the protege, and he could do no wrong.
+
+The last, Hopalong Cassidy, was a combination of irresponsibility,
+humor, good nature, love of fighting, and nonchalance when face to face
+with danger. His most prominent attribute was that of always getting
+into trouble without any intention of so doing; in fact, he was much
+aggrieved and surprised when it came. It seemed as though when any "bad
+man" desired to add to his reputation he invariably selected Hopalong as
+the means (a fact due, perhaps, to the perversity of things in general).
+Bad men became scarce soon after Hopalong became a fixture in any
+locality. He had been crippled some years before in a successful
+attempt to prevent the assassination of a friend, Sheriff Harris, of
+Albuquerque, and he still possessed a limp.
+
+When Red had relieved his feelings and had dug the alkali out of his
+ears and eyes, he led the Sioux to the rear of the saloon, where a
+"pinto" was busily engaged in endeavoring to pitch a saddle from his
+back, employing the intervals in trying to see how much of the picket
+rope he could wrap around his legs.
+
+When By-and-by saw what he was expected to ride he felt somewhat
+relieved, for the pony did not appear to have more than the ordinary
+amount of cussedness. He waved his hand, and Johnny and Red bandaged the
+animal's eyes, which quieted him at once, and then they untangled
+the rope from around his legs and saw that the cinches were secure.
+Motioning to By-and-by that all was ready, they jerked the bandage off
+as the Indian settled himself in the saddle.
+
+Had By-and-by been really sober he would have taken the conceit out of
+that pony in chunks, and as it was he experienced no great difficulty in
+holding his seat; but in his addled state of mind he grasped the end of
+the cinch strap in such a way that when the pony jumped forward in
+its last desperate effort the buckle slipped and the cinch became
+unfastened; and By-and-by, still seated in the saddle, flew head
+foremost into the horse trough, where he spilled much water.
+
+As this happened Cowan turned the corner, and when he saw the wasted
+water (which he had to carry, bucketful at a time, from the wells a good
+quarter of a mile away) his anger blazed forth, and yelling, he ran
+for the drenched Sioux, who was just crawling out of his bath. When the
+unfortunate saw the irate man bearing down on him he sputtered in rage
+and fear, and, turning, he ran down the street, with Cowan thundering
+flatfootedly behind on a fat man's gallop, to the hysterical cheers of
+the delighted outfit, who saw in it nothing but a good joke.
+
+When Cowan returned from his hopeless task, blowing and wheezing, he
+heard sundry remarks, sotto voce, which were not calculated to increase
+his opinion of his physical condition.
+
+"Seems to me," remarked the irrepressible Hopalong, "that one of those
+cayuses has got th' heaves."
+
+"It shore sounds like it," acquiesced Johnny, red in the face from
+holding in his laughter, "an' say, somebody interferes."
+
+"All knock-kneed animals do, yu heathen," supplied Red.
+
+"Hey, yu, let up on that and have a drink on th' house," invited
+Cowan. "If I gits that durn war whoop I'll make yu think there's been
+a cyclone. I'll see how long that bum hangs around this here burg, I
+will."
+
+Red's eyes narrowed and his temper got the upper hand. "He ain't no bum
+when yu gives him rotgut at a quarter of a dollar a glass, is he? Any
+time that 'bum' gits razzled out for nothin' more'n this, why, I goes
+too; an' I ain't sayin' nothin' about goin' peaceable--like, neither."
+
+"I knowed somethin' like this 'ud happen," dolefully sang out Billy
+Williams, strong on the side of his pessimism.
+
+"For th' Lord's sake, have you broke out?" asked Red, disgustedly. "I'm
+goin' to hit the trail--but just keep this afore yore mind: if By-and-by
+gits in any accidents or ain't in sight when I comes to town again, this
+here climate'll be a heep sight hotter'n it is now. No hard feelings,
+sabe? It's just a casual bit of advice. Come on, fellows, let's
+amble--I'm hungry."
+
+As they raced across the plain toward the ranch a pair of beady eyes,
+snapping with a drunken rage, watched them from an arroyo; and when
+Cowan entered the saloon the next morning he could not find By-and-by's
+rifle, which he had placed behind the bar. He also missed a handful of
+cartridges from the box near the cash drawer; and had he looked closely
+at his bottled whisky he would have noticed a loss there. A horse was
+missing from a Mexican's corral and there were rumors that several
+Indians had been seen far out on the plain.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V. The Law of the Range
+
+
+"Phew! I'm shore hungry," said Hopalong, as he and Red dismounted at the
+ranch the next morning for breakfast. "Wonder what's good for it?"
+
+"They's three things that's good for famine," said Red, leading the way
+to the bunk house. "Yu can pull in yore belt, yu can drink, an yu can
+eat. Yore getting as bad as Johnny--but he's young yet."
+
+The others met their entrance with a volley of good-humored banter, some
+of which was so personal and evoked such responses that it sounded like
+the preliminary skirmish to a fight. But under all was that soft accent,
+that drawl of humorous appreciation and eyes twinkling in suppressed
+merriment. Here they were thoroughly at home and the spirit of
+comradeship manifested itself in many subtle ways; the wit became more
+daring and sharp, Billy lost some of his pessimism, and the alertness
+disappeared from their manner.
+
+Skinny left off romping with Red and yawned. "I wish that cook'ud wake
+up an' git breakfast. He's the cussedest hombre I ever saw--he kin go to
+sleep standin' up an' not know it. Johnny's th' boy that worries him--th'
+kid comes in an' whoops things up till he's gorged himself."
+
+"Johnny's got th' most appallin' feel for grub of anybody I knows,"
+added Red. "I wonder what's keepin' him--he's usually hangin' around here
+bawlin' for his grub like a spoiled calf, long afore cookie's got th'
+fire goin'."
+
+"Mebby he rustled some grub out with him--I saw him tip-toein' out of th'
+gallery this mornin' when I come back for my cigs," remarked Hopalong,
+glancing at Billy.
+
+Billy groaned and made for the gallery. Emerging half a minute later he
+blurted out his tale of woe: "Every time I blows myself an' don't drink
+it all in town some slab-sided maverick freezes to it. It's gone," he
+added, dismally.
+
+"Too bad, Billy--but what is it?" asked Skinny.
+
+"What is it? Wha'd yu think it was, you emaciated match? Jewelry?
+Cayuses? It's whisky--two simoleons' worth. Some-thin's allus wrong. This
+here whole yearth's wrong, just like that cross-eyed sky pilot said over
+to--"
+
+"Will yu let up?" Yelled Red, throwing a sombrero at the grumbling
+unfortunate. "Yu ask Buck where yore tanglefoot is.
+
+"I'd shore look nice askin' th' boss if he'd rustled my whisky, wouldn't
+I? An' would yu mind throwin' somebody else's hat? I paid twenty wheels
+for that eight years ago, and I don't want it mussed none."
+
+"Gee, yore easy! Why, Ah Sing, over at Albuquerque, gives them away
+every time yu gits yore shirt washed," gravely interposed Hopalong as he
+went out to cuss the cook.
+
+"Well, what'd yu think of that?" Exclaimed Billy in an injured tone.
+
+"Oh, yu needn't be hikin' for Albuquerque--WasheeWashee'ud charge yu
+double for washin' yore shirt. Yu ought to fall in di' river some
+day--then he might talk business," called Hopalong over his shoulder
+as he heaved an old boot into the gallery. "Hey, yu hibernatin' son of
+morphine, if yu don't git them flapjacks in here pretty sudden-like
+I'll scatter yu all over di' landscape, sabe? Yu just wait till Johnny
+comes!"
+
+"Wonder where th' kid is?" asked Lanky, rolling a cigarette. "Off
+somewhere lookin' at di' sun through di' bottom of my bottle," grumbled
+Billy.
+
+Hopalong started to go out, but halted on the sill and looked steadily
+off toward the northwest. "That's funny. Hey, fellows, here comes Buck
+an' Johnny ridin' double--on a walk, too!" he exclaimed. "Wonder what
+th'--thunder! Red, Buck's carryun' him! Somethin's busted!" he yelled, as
+he dashed for his pony and made for the newcomers.
+
+"I told yu he was hittin' my bottle," pertly remarked Billy, as he
+followed the rest outside.
+
+"Did yu ever see Johnny drunk? Did yu ever see him drink more'n two
+glasses? Shut yore wailin' face--they's somethin' worse'n that in this
+here," said Red, his temper rising. "Hopalong an' me took yore cheap
+liquor--it's under Pete's bunk," he added.
+
+The trio approached on a walk and Johnny, delirious and covered with
+blood, was carried into the bunk house. Buck waited until all had
+assembled again and then, his face dark with anger, spoke sharply and
+without the usual drawl: "Skragged from behind, blast them! Get some
+grub an' water an' be quick. We'll see who the gent with th' grudge is."
+
+At this point the expostulations of the indignant cook, who, not
+understanding the cause, regarded the invasion of china shop bulls as
+sacrilegious, came to his ears. Striding quickly to the door, he grabbed
+the pan the Mexican was about to throw and, turning the now frightened
+man around, thundered, "Keep quiet an' get 'em some grub."
+
+When rifles and ammunition had been secured they mounted and followed
+him at a hard gallop along the back trail. No words were spoken, for
+none were necessary. All knew that they would not return until they
+had found the man for whom they were looking, even if the chase led
+to Canada. They did not ask Buck for any of the particulars, for the
+foreman was not in the humor to talk, and all, save Hopalong, whose
+curiosity was always on edge, recognized only two facts and cared for
+nothing else: Johnny had been ambushed and they were going to get the
+one who was responsible.
+
+They did not even conjecture as to who it might be, because the trail
+would lead them to the man himself, and it mattered nothing who or what
+he was--there was only one course to take with an assassin. So they said
+nothing, but rode on with squared jaws and set lips, the seven ponies
+breast to breast in a close arc.
+
+Soon they came to an arroyo which they took at a leap. As they
+approached it they saw signs in the dust which told them that a body had
+lain there huddled up; and there were brown spots on the baked alkali.
+The trail they followed was now single, Buck having ridden along the
+bank of the arroyo when hunting for Johnny, for whom he had orders. This
+trail was very irregular, as if the horse had wandered at will. Suddenly
+they came upon five tracks, all pointing one way, and four of these
+turned abruptly and disappeared in the northwest. Half a mile beyond the
+point of separation was a chaparral, which was an important factor to
+them.
+
+Each man knew just what had taken place as if he had been an eyewitness,
+for the trail was plain. The assassins had waited in the chaparral for
+Johnny to pass, probably having seen him riding that way. When he had
+passed and his back had been turned to them they had fired and wounded
+him severely at the first volley, for Johnny was of the stuff that
+fights back and his revolvers had showed full chambers and clean barrels
+when Red had examined them in the bunk house. Then they had given chase
+for a short distance and, from some inexplicable motive, probably fear,
+they had turned and ridden off without knowing how bad he was hit. It
+was this trail that led to the northwest, and it was this trail that
+they followed without pausing.
+
+When they had covered fifty miles they sighted the Cross Bar O ranch
+where they hoped to secure fresh mounts. As they rode up to the ranch
+house the owner, Bud Wallace, came around the corner and saw them.
+
+ "Hullo, boys! What deviltry are yu up to now?" he asked.  Buck
+leaped from his mount, followed by the others, and shoved his sombrero
+back on his head as he started to remove the saddle.
+
+"We're trailin' a bunch of murderers. They ambushed Johnny an' blame
+near killed him. I stopped here to get fresh cayuses."
+
+"Yu did right!" replied Wallace heartily. Then raising his voice he
+shouted to some of his men who were near the corral to bring up the
+seven best horses they could rope. Then he told the cook to bring out
+plenty of food and drink.
+
+"I got four punchers what ain't doin' nothin' but eat," he suggested.
+
+"Much obliged, Wallace, but there's only four of 'em, an' we'd rather
+get 'em ourselves--Johnny'ud feel better," replied Buck, throwing his
+saddle on the horse that was led up to him.
+
+"How's yore cartridges--got plenty?" Persisted Wallace.
+
+"Two hundred apiece," responded Buck, springing into his saddle and
+riding off. "So long," he called.
+
+"So long, an' plug blazes out of them," shouted Wallace as the dust
+swept over him.
+
+At five in the afternoon they forded the Black River at a point where it
+crossed the state line from New Mexico, and at dusk camped at the base
+of the Guadalupe Mountains. At daybreak they took up the chase, grim and
+merciless, and shortly afterward they passed the smoldering remains of
+a camp fire, showing that the pursued had been in a great hurry, for it
+should have been put out and masked. At noon they left the mountains to
+the rear and sighted the Barred Horeshoe, which they approached.
+
+The owner of the ranch saw them coming, and from their appearance
+surmised that something was wrong.
+
+"What is it?" He shouted. "Rustlers?"
+
+"Nope. Murderers. I wants to swap cayuses quick," answered Buck.
+
+"There they are. Th' boys just brought 'em in. Anything else I can let
+yu have?"
+
+"Nope," shouted Buck as they galloped off.
+
+"Somebody's goin' to get plugged full of holes," murmured the ranch
+owner as he watched them kicking up the dust in huge clouds.
+
+After they had forded a tributary of the Rio Penasco near the Sacramento
+Mountains and had surmounted the opposite bank, Hopalong spurred his
+horse to the top of a hummock and swept the plain with Pete's field
+glasses, which he had borrowed for the occasion, and returned to the
+rest, who had kept on without slacking the pace. As he took up his
+former position he grunted, "War-whoops," and unslung his rifle, an
+example followed by the others.
+
+The ponies were now running at top speed, and as they shot over a rise
+their riders saw their quarry a mile and a half in advance. One of the
+Indians looked back and discharged his rifle in defiance, and it now
+became a race worthy of the name--Death fled from Death. The fresher
+mounts of the cowboys steadily cut down the distance and, as the rifles
+of the pursuers began to speak, the hard-pressed Indians made for the
+smaller of two knolls, the plain leading to the larger one being too
+heavily strewn with bowlders to permit speed.
+
+As the fugitives settled down behind the rocks which fringed the edge of
+their elevation a shot from one of them disabled Billy's arm, but had no
+other effect than to increase the score to be settled. The pursuers
+rode behind a rise and dismounted, from where, leaving their mounts
+protected, they scattered out to surround the knoll.
+
+Hopalong, true to his curiosity, finally turned up on the highest point
+of the other knoll, a spur of the range in the west, for he always
+wanted to see all he could. Skinny, due to his fighting instinct,
+settled one hundred yards to the north and on the same spur. Buck lay
+hidden behind an enormous bowlder eight hundred yards to the northeast
+of Skinny, and the same distance southeast of Buck was Red Connors, who
+was crawling up the bed of an arroyo. Billy, nursing his arm, lay in
+front of the horses, and Pete, from his position between Billy and
+Hopalong, was crawling from rock to rock in an endeavor to get near
+enough to use his Colts, his favorite and most effective weapons.
+Intermittent puffs of smoke arising from a point between Skinny and Buck
+showed where Lanky Smith was improving each shining hour.
+
+There had been no directions given, each man choosing his own position,
+yet each was of strategic worth. Billy protected the horses, Hopalong
+and Skinny swept the knoll with a plunging fire, and Lanky and Buck lay
+in the course the besieged would most likely take if they tried a dash.
+Off to the east Red barred them from creeping down the arroyo, and from
+where Pete was he could creep up to within sixty yards if he chose the
+right rocks. The ranges varied from four hundred yards for Buck to sixty
+for Pete, and the others averaged close to three hundred, which allowed
+very good shooting on both sides.
+
+Hopalong and Skinny gradually moved nearer to each other for
+companionship, and as the former raised his head to see what the others
+were doing he received a graze on the ear.
+
+"Wow!" he yelled, rubbing the tingling member.
+
+Two puffs of smoke floated up from the knoll, and Skinny swore.
+
+"Where'd he get yu, Fat?" asked Hopalong.
+
+"G'wan, don't get funny, son," replied Skinny.
+
+
+Jets of smoke arose from the north and east, where Buck and Red were
+stationed, and Pete was half way to the knoll. So far he hadn't been hit
+as he dodged in and out, and, emboldened by his luck, he made a run of
+five yards and his sombrero was shot from his head. Another dash and his
+empty holster was ripped from its support. As he crouched behind a rock
+he heard a yell from Hopalong, and saw that interested individual waving
+his sombrero to cheer him on. An angry pang! from the knoll caused that
+enthusiastic rooter to drop for safety.
+
+"Locoed son-of-a-gun," complained Pete. "He'll shore git potted." Then
+he glanced at Billy, who was the center of several successive spurts of
+dust.
+
+"How's business, Billy?" he called pleasantly.
+
+"Oh, they'll git me yet," responded the pessimist. "Yu needn't git
+anxious. If that off buck wasn't so green he'd 'a' had me long ago."
+
+"Ya-hoo! Pete! Oh, Pete!" called Hopalong, sticking his head out at one
+side and grinning as the wondering object of his hail craned his neck to
+see what the matter was.
+
+"Huh?" grunted Pete, and then remembering the distance he shouted,
+"What's th' matter?"
+
+"Got any cigarettes?" asked Hopalong.
+
+"Yu poor sheep!" said Pete, and turning back to work he drove a .45 into
+a yellow moccasin.
+
+Hopalong began to itch and he saw that he was near an ant hill. Then the
+cactus at his right boomed out mournfully and a hole appeared in it. He
+fired at the smoke and a yell informed him that he had made a hit.
+"Go 'way!" he complained as a green fly buzzed past his nose. Then he
+scratched each leg with the foot of the other and squirmed incessantly,
+kicking out with both feet at once. A warning metallic whir-r-r! on his
+left caused to yank them in again, and turning his head quickly he the
+pleasure of lopping off the head of a rattlesnake with his Colt's.
+
+"Glad yu wasn't a copperhead," he exclaimed. "Somebody had ought 'a'
+shot that fool Noah. Blast the ants!" He drowned with a jet of tobacco
+juice a Gila monster that was staring at him and took a savage delight
+in its frantic efforts to bury itself.
+
+Soon he heard Skinny swear and he sung out: "What's the matter, Skinny?
+Git plugged again?"
+
+"Naw, bugs--ain't they mean?" Plaintively asked his friend. "They ain't
+none over here. What kind of bugs?"
+
+"Sufferin' Moses, I ain't no bugologist! All kinds!"
+
+But Hopalong got it at last. He had found tobacco and rolled a
+cigarette, and in reaching for a match exposed his shoulder to a shot
+that broke his collar bone. Skinny's rifle cracked in reply and the
+offending brave rolled out from behind a rock. From the fuss emanating
+from Hopalong's direction Skinny knew that his neighbor had been hit.
+
+"Don't yu care, Hoppy. I got th' cuss," he said consolingly. "Where'd he
+git yu?" he asked.
+
+"In di' heart, yu pie-faced nuisance. Come over here an' corral this
+cussed bandage an' gimme some water," snapped the injured man.
+
+Skinny wormed his way through the thorny chaparral and bound up the
+shoulder. "Anything else?" he asked.
+
+"Yes. Shoot that bunch of warts an' blow that tobacco-eyed Gila to
+Cheyenne. This here's worse than the time we cleaned out th' C 80
+outfit!" Then he kicked the dead toad and swore at the sun.
+
+"Close yore yap; yore worse than a kid! Anybody'd think yu never got
+plugged afore," said Skinny indignantly.
+
+"I can cuss all I wants," replied Hopalong, proving his assertion as he
+grabbed his gun and fired at the dead Indian. A bullet whined above
+his head and Skinny fired at the smoke. He peeped out and saw that his
+friends were getting nearer to the knoll.
+
+"They's closin' in now. We'll soon be gittin' home," he reported.
+
+Hopalong looked out in time to see Buck make a dash for a bowlder that
+lay ten yards in front of him, which he reached in safety. Lanky also
+ran in and Pete added five more yards to his advance. Buck made
+another dash, but leaped into the air, and, coming down as if from an
+intentional high jump, staggered and stumbled for a few paces and then
+fell flat, rolling over and over toward the shelter of a split rock,
+where he lay quiet. A leering red face peered over the rocks on the
+knoll, but the whoop of exultation was cut short, for Red's rifle
+cracked and the warrior rolled down the steep bank, where another shot
+from the same gun settled him beyond question.
+
+Hopalong choked and, turning his face away, angrily dashed his knuckles
+into his eyes. "Blast 'em! Blast 'em! They've got Buck! They've got
+Buck, blast 'em! They've got Buck, Skinny! Good old Buck! They've got
+him! Jimmy's gone, Johnny's plugged, and now Buck's gone! Come on!"
+he sobbed in a frenzy of vengeance. "Come on, Skinny! We'll tear their
+cussed hides into a deeper red than they are now! Oh, blast it, I can't
+see--where's my gun?" He groped for the rifle and fought Skinny when the
+latter, red-eyed but cool, endeavored to restrain him. "Lemme go, curse
+yu! Don't yu know they got Buck? Lemme go!"
+
+"Down! Red's got di' skunk. Yu can't do nothin'--they'd drop yu afore
+yu took five steps. Red's got him, I tell yu! Do yu want me to lick yu?
+We'll pay 'em back with interest if yu'll keep yore head!" exclaimed
+Skinny, throwing the crazed man heavily.
+
+Musical tones, rising and falling in weird octaves, whining pityingly,
+diabolically, sobbing in a fascinating monotone and slobbering in
+ragged chords, calling as they swept over the plain, always calling and
+exhorting, they mingled in barbaric discord with the defiant barks of
+the six-shooters and the inquiring cracks of the Winchesters. High up in
+the air several specks sailed and drifted, more coming up rapidly from
+all directions. Buzzards know well where food can be found.
+
+As Hopalong leaned back against a rock he was hit in the thigh by a
+ricochet that tore its way out, whirling like a circular saw, a span
+above where it entered. The wound was very nasty, being ripped twice
+the size made by an ordinary shot, and it bled profusely. Skinny crawled
+over and attended to it, making a tourniquet of his neckerchief and
+clumsily bandaging it with a strip torn from his shirt.
+
+"Yore shore lucky, yu are," he grumbled as he made his way back to his
+post, where he vented his rancor by emptying the semi-depleted magazine
+of his Winchester at the knoll.
+
+Hopalong began to sing and shout and he talked of Jimmy and his
+childhood, interspersing the broken narrative with choice selections
+as sung in the music halls of Leavenworth and Abilene. He wound up by
+yelling and struggling, and Skinny had his hands full in holding him.
+
+"Hopalong! Cassidy! Come out of that! Keep quiet--yu'll shore git plugged
+if yu don't stop that plungin'. For gosh sake, did yu hear that?" A
+bullet viciously hissed between them and flattened out on a near-by
+rock; others cut their way through the chaparral to the sound of falling
+twigs, and Skinny threw himself on the struggling man and strapped
+Hopalong with his belt to the base of a honey mesquite that grew at his
+side.
+
+"Hold still, now, and let that bandage alone. Yu allus goes off di'
+range when yu gets plugged," he complained. He cut down a cactus and
+poured the sap over the wounded man's face, causing him to gurgle and
+look around. His eyes had a sane look now and Skinny slid off his chest.
+
+"Git that--belt loose; I ain't--no cow," brokenly blazed out the picketed
+Hopalong. Skinny did so, handed the irate man his Colts and returned to
+his own post, from where he fired twice, reporting the shots.
+
+"I'm tryin' to get him on th' glance' first one went high an' th' other
+fell flat," he explained.
+
+Hopalong listened eagerly, for this was shooting that he could
+appreciate. "Lemme see," he commanded. Skinny dragged him over to a
+crack and settled down for another try.
+
+"Where is he, Skinny?" Asked Hopalong.
+
+"Behind that second big one. No, over on this here side. See that smooth
+granite? If I can get her there on th' right spot he'll shore know it."
+He aimed carefully and fired.
+
+Through Pete's glasses Hopalong saw a leaden splotch appear on the rock
+and he notified the marksman that he was shooting high. "Put her on that
+bump closer down," he suggested. Skinny did so and another yell reached
+their ears.
+
+"That's a dandy. Yore shore all right, yu old cuss," complimented
+Hopalong, elated at the success of the experiment.
+
+Skinny fired again and a brown arm flopped out into sight. Another shot
+struck it and it jerked as though it were lifeless.
+
+"He's cashed. See how she jumped? Like a rope," remarked Skinny with a
+grin. The arm lay quiet.
+
+Pete had gained his last cover and was all eyes and Colts. Lanky was
+also very close in and was intently watching one particular rock.
+Several shots echoed from the far side of the knoll and they knew that
+Red was all right. Billy was covering a cluster of rocks that protruded
+above the others and, as they looked, his rifle rang out and the last
+defender leaped down and disappeared in the chaparral. He wore yellow
+trousers and an old boiled shirt.
+
+"By an'-by, by all that's bad!" yelled Hopalong. "Th' measly coyote! An'
+me a-fillin' his ornery hide with liquor. Well, they'll have to find
+him all over again now," he complained, astounded by the revelation. He
+fired into the chaparral to express his pugnacious disgust and scared
+out a huge tarantula, which alighted on Skinny's chaps, crawling rapidly
+toward the unconscious man's neck. Hopalong's face hardened and he
+slowly covered the insect and fired, driving it into the sand, torn
+and lifeless. The bullet touched the leathern garment and Skinny
+remonstrated, knowing that Hopalong was in no condition for fancy
+shooting.
+
+"Huh!" exclaimed Hopalong. "That was a tarantula what I plugged. He
+was headin' for yore neck," he explained, watching the chaparral with
+apprehension.
+
+"Go 'way, was it? Bully for yu!" exclaimed Skinny, tarantulas being
+placed at par with rattlesnakes, and he considered that he had been
+saved from a horrible death. "Thought yu said they wasn't no bugs over
+here," he added in an aggrieved tone.
+
+"They wasn't none. Yu brought 'em. I only had th' main show--Gilas,
+rattlers an' toads," he replied, and then added, "Ain't it cussed hot up
+here?"
+
+"She is. Yu won't have no cinch ridin' home with that leg. Yu better
+take my cayuse--he's busted more'n yourn," responded Skinny.
+
+"Yore cayuse is at th' Cross Bar O, yu wall-eyed pirute."
+
+"Shore 'nuff. Funny how a feller forgets sometimes. Lemme alone now,
+they's goin' to git By-an'-by. Pete an' Lanky has just went in after
+him."
+
+That was what had occurred. The two impatient punchers, had grown tired
+of waiting, and risked what might easily have been death in order to
+hasten matters. The others kept up a rapid fire, directed at the far end
+of the chaparral on the knoll, in order to mask the movements of their
+venturesome friends, intending also to drive By-and-by toward them so
+that he would be the one to get picked off as he advanced.
+
+Several shots rang out in quick succession on the knoll and the
+chaparral became agitated. Several more shots sounded from the depth
+of the thicket and a mounted Indian dashed out of the northern edge and
+headed in Buck's direction. His course would take him close to Buck,
+whom he had seen fall, and would let him escape at a point midway
+between Red and Skinny, as Lanky was on the knoll and the range was very
+far to allow effective shooting by these two.
+
+Red saw him leave the chaparral and in his haste to reload jammed the
+cartridge, and By-and-by swept on toward temporary safety, with Red
+dancing in a paroxysm of rage, swelling his vocabulary with words he had
+forgotten existed.
+
+By-and-by, rising to his full height in the saddle, turned and wiggled
+his fingers at the frenzied Red and made several other signs that the
+cowboy was in the humor to appreciate to the fullest extent. Then he
+turned and shook his rifle at the marksmen on the larger knoll, whose
+best shots kicked up the dust fully fifty yards too short. The pony was
+sweeping toward the reservation and friends only fifteen miles away,
+and By-and-by knew that once among the mountains he would be on equal
+footing at least with his enemies.
+
+As he passed the rock behind which Buck lay sprawled on his face he
+uttered a piercing whoop of triumph and leaned forward on his pony's
+neck. Twenty leaps farther and the spiteful crack of a rifle echoed from
+where the foreman was painfully supporting himself on his elbows. The
+pony swept on in a spurt of nerve-racking speed, but alone. By-and-by
+shrieked again and crashed heavily to the ground, where he rolled
+inertly and then lay still. Men like Buck are dangerous until their
+hearts have ceased to beat.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. Trials of the Convalescent
+
+
+The days at the ranch passed in irritating idleness for those who
+had obstructed the flight of hostile lead, and worse than any of the
+patients was Hopalong, who fretted and fumed at his helplessness, which
+retarded his recovery. But at last the day came when he was fit for
+the saddle again, and he gave notice of his joy in whoops and forthwith
+announced that he was entitled to a holiday; and Buck had not the heart
+to refuse him.
+
+So he started forth in his quest of peace and pleasure, but instead had
+found only trouble and had been forced to leave his card at almost every
+place he had visited.
+
+There was that affair in Red Hot Gulch, Colorado, where, under pressure,
+he had invested sundry pieces of lead in the persons of several
+obstreperous citizens and then had paced the zealous and excitable
+sheriff to the state line.
+
+He next was noticed in Cheyenne, where his deformity was vividly
+dwelt upon, to the extent of six words, by one Tarantula Charley, the
+aforesaid Charley not being able to proceed to greater length on account
+of heart failure. As Charley had been a ubiquitous nuisance, those
+present availed themselves of the opportunity offered by Hopalong to
+indulge in a free drink.
+
+Laramie was his next stopping place, and shortly after his arrival he
+was requested to sing and dance by a local terror, who informed all
+present that he was the only seventeen-buttoned rattlesnake in the cow
+country. Hopalong, hurt and indignant at being treated like a common
+tenderfoot, promptly knocked the terror down. After he had irrigated
+several square feet of parched throats belonging to the audience he
+again took up his journey and spent a day at Denver, where he managed to
+avoid any further trouble.
+
+Santa Fe loomed up before him several days later and he entered it
+shortly before noon. At this time the old Spanish city was a bundle of
+high-strung nerves, and certain parts of it were calculated to furnish
+any and all kinds of excitement except revival meetings and church
+fairs. Hopalong straddled a lively nerve before he had been in the city
+an hour. Two local bad men, Slim Travennes and Tex Ewalt, desiring to
+establish the fact that they were roaring prairie fires, attempted to
+consume the placid and innocent stranger as he limped across the plaza
+in search of a game of draw poker at the Black Hills Emporium, with the
+result that they needed repairs, to the chagrin and disgust of their
+immediate acquaintances, who endeavored to drown their mortification
+and sorrow in rapid but somewhat wild gun play, and soon remembered that
+they had pressing engagements elsewhere.
+
+Hopalong reloaded his guns and proceeded to the Emporium, where he found
+a game all prepared for him in every sense of the word. On the third
+deal he objected to the way in which the dealer manipulated the cards,
+and when the smoke cleared away he was the only occupant of the room,
+except a dog belonging to the bartender that had intercepted a stray
+bullet.
+
+Hunting up the owner of the hound, he apologized for being the indirect
+cause of the animal's death, deposited a sum of Mexican dollars in
+that gentleman's palm and went on his way to Alameda, which he entered
+shortly after dark, and where an insult, simmering in its uncalled-for
+venom, met him as he limped across the floor of the local dispensary on
+his way to the bar. There was no time for verbal argument and precedent
+had established the manner of his reply, and his repartee was as quick
+as light and most effective. Having resented the epithets he gave his
+attention to the occupants of the room.
+
+Smoke drifted over the table in an agitated cloud and dribbled lazily
+upward from the muzzle of his six-shooter, while he looked searchingly
+at those around him. Strained and eager faces peered at his opponent,
+who was sliding slowly forward in his chair, and for the length of a
+minute no sound but the guarded breathing of the onlookers could be
+heard. This was broken by a nervous cough from the rear of the room, and
+the faces assumed their ordinary nonchalant expressions, their rugged
+lines heavily shadowed in the light of the flickering oil lamps, while
+the shuffling of cards and the clink of silver became audible. Hopalong
+Cassidy had objected to insulting remarks about his affliction.
+
+Hopalong was very sensitive about his crippled leg and was always
+prompt to resent any scorn or curiosity directed at it, especially
+when emanating from strangers. A young man of twenty-three years, when
+surrounded by nearly perfect specimens of physical manhood, is apt to
+be painfully self-conscious of any such defect, and it reacted on his
+nature at times, even though he was well-known for his happy-go-lucky
+disposition and playfulness. He consoled himself with the knowledge
+that what he lost in symmetry was more than balanced by the celerity
+and certainty of his gun hand, which was right or left, or both, as the
+occasion demanded.
+
+Several hours later, as his luck was vacillating, he felt a heavy hand
+on his shoulder, and was overjoyed at seeing Buck and Red, the latter
+grinning as only Red could grin, and he withdrew from the game to enjoy
+his good fortune.
+
+While Hopalong had been wandering over the country the two friends had
+been hunting for him and had traced him successfully, that being due
+to the trail he had blazed with his six-shooters. This they had
+accomplished without harm to themselves, as those of whom they inquired
+thought that they must want Hopalong "bad," and cheerfully gave the
+information required.
+
+They had started out more for the purpose of accompanying him for
+pleasure, but that had changed to an urgent necessity in the following
+manner:
+
+While on the way from Denver to Santa Fe they had met Pete Willis of the
+Three Triangle, a ranch that adjoined their own, and they paused to pass
+the compliments of the season.
+
+"Purty far from th' grub wagon, Pie," remarked Buck.
+
+"Oh, I'm only goin' to Denver," responded Pie.
+
+"Purty hot," suggested Red.
+
+"She shore is. Seen anybody yu knows?" Pie asked.
+
+"One or two--Billy of th' Star Crescent an' Panhandle Lukins," answered
+Buck.
+
+"That so? Panhandle's goin' to punch for us next year. I'll hunt him up.
+I heard down south of Albuquerque that Thirsty Jones an' his brothers
+are lookin' for trouble," offered Pie.
+
+"Yah! They ain't lookin' for no trouble--they just goes around
+blowin' off. Trouble? Why, they don't know what she is," remarked Red
+contemptuously.
+
+"Well, they's been dodgin' th' sheriff purty lively lately, an' if that
+ain't trouble I don't know what is," said Pie.
+
+"It shore is, an' hard to dodge," acquiesced Buck.
+
+"Well, I has to amble. Is Panhandle in Denver? Yes? I calculates as
+how me an' him'll buck th' tiger for a whirl--he's shore lucky. Well, so
+long," said Pie as he moved on.
+
+"So long," responded the two.
+
+"Hey, wait a minute," yelled Pie after he had ridden a hundred yards.
+"If yu sees Hopalong yu might tell him that th' Joneses are goin' to
+hunt him up when they gits to Albuquerque. They's shore sore on him.
+'Tain't none of my funeral, only they ain't always a-carin' how they
+goes after a feller. So long," and soon he was a cloud of dust on the
+horizon.
+
+"Trouble!" snorted Red; "well, between dodgin' Harris an' huntin'
+Hopalong I reckons they'll shore find her." Then to himself he murmured,
+"Funny how everythin' comes his way."
+
+"That's gospel shore enough, but, as Pie said, they ain't a whole lot
+particular as how they deal th' cards. We better get a move on an' find
+that ornery little cuss," replied Buck.
+
+"O. K., only I ain't losin' no sleep about Hoppy. His gun's too lively
+for me to do any worryin'," asserted Red.
+
+"They'll get lynched some time, shore," declared Buck.
+
+"Not if they find Hoppy," grimly replied Red.
+
+They tore through Santa Fe, only stopping long enough to wet their
+throats, and after several hours of hard riding entered Alameda, where
+they found Hopalong in the manner narrated.
+
+After some time the three left the room and headed for Albuquerque,
+twelve miles to the south. At ten o'clock they dismounted before the
+Nugget and Rope, an unpainted wooden building supposed to be a
+clever combination of barroom, dance and gambling hall and hotel. The
+cleverness lay in the man who could find the hotel part.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. The Open Door
+
+
+The proprietor of the Nugget and Rope, a German named Baum, not being
+troubled with police rules, kept the door wide open for the purpose
+of inviting trade, a proceeding not to the liking of his patrons for
+obvious reasons. Probably not one man in ten was fortunate enough to
+have no one "looking for him," and the lighted interior assured good
+hunting to any one in the dark street. He was continually opening the
+door, which every newcomer promptly and forcibly slammed shut. When he
+saw men walk across the room for the express purpose of slamming it he
+began to cherish the idea that there was a conspiracy on foot to anger
+him and thus force him to bring about his own death.
+
+After the door had been slammed three times in one evening by one man,
+the last slam being so forcible as to shake two bottles from the shelf
+and to crack the door itself, he became positive that his suspicions
+were correct, and so was very careful to smile and take it as a joke.
+Finally, wearied by his vain efforts to keep it open and fearing for the
+door, he hit upon a scheme, the brilliancy of which inflated his chest
+and gave him the appearance of a prize-winning bantam. When his patrons
+strolled in that night there was no door to slam, as it lay behind the
+bar.
+
+When Buck and Red entered, closely followed by Hopalong, they elbowed
+their way to the rear of the room, where they could see before being
+seen. As yet they had said nothing to Hopalong about Pie's warning and
+were debating in their minds whether they should do so or not, when
+Hopalong interrupted their thoughts by laughing. They looked up and he
+nodded toward the front, where they saw that anxious eyes from all parts
+of the room were focused on the open door. Then they noticed that it had
+been removed.
+
+The air of semi-hostile, semi-anxious inquiry of the patrons and the
+smile of satisfaction covering the face of Baum appealed to them as the
+most ludicrous sight their eyes had seen for months, and they leaned
+back and roared with laughter, thus calling forth sundry looks of
+disapproval from the innocent causes of their merriment. But they were
+too well known in Albuquerque to allow the disapproval to approach a
+serious end, and finally, as the humorous side of the situation dawned
+on the crowd, they joined in the laugh and all went merrily.
+
+
+At the psychologic moment some one shouted for a dance and the
+suggestion met with uproarious approval. At that moment Harris, the
+sheriff, came in and volunteered to supply the necessary music if the
+crowd would pay the fine against a straying fiddler he had corraled the
+day before. A hat was quickly passed and a sum was realized which would
+pay several fines to come and Harris departed for the music.
+
+A chair was placed on the bar for the musician and, to the tune of "Old
+Dan Tucker" and an assortment of similar airs, the board floor shook
+and trembled. It was a comical sight and Hopalong, the only wallflower
+besides Baum and the sheriff, laughed until he became weak. Cow punchers
+play as they work, hard and earnestly, and there was plenty of action.
+Sombreros flapped like huge wings and the baggy chaps looked like small,
+distorted balloons.
+
+The Virginia reel was a marvel of supple, exaggerated grace and the
+quadrille looked like a free-for-all for unbroken colts. The honor
+of prompter was conferred upon the sheriff, and he gravely called the
+changes as they were usually called in that section of the country:
+
+   "Oh, th' ladies trail in
+      An' th' gents trail out,
+   An' all stampede down th' middle.
+      If yu ain't got th' tin
+         Yu can dance an' shout,
+   But yu must keep up with th' fiddle."
+
+
+As the dance waxed faster and the dancers grew hotter Hopalong,
+feeling lonesome because he wouldn't face ridicule, even if it was not
+expressed, went over and stood by the sheriff. He and Harris were good
+friends, for he had received the wound that crippled him in saving the
+sheriff from assassination. Harris killed the man who had fired that
+shot, and from this episode on the burning desert grew a friendship that
+was as strong as their own natures.
+
+Harris was very well liked by the majority and feared by the rest, for
+he was a square man and the best sheriff the county had ever known.
+Quiet and unassuming, small of stature and with a kind word for every
+one, he was a universal favorite among the better class of citizens.
+Quick as a flash and unerring in his shooting, he was a nightmare to the
+"bad men." No profane word had ever been known to leave his lips, and
+he was the possessor of a widespread reputation for generosity. His
+face was naturally frank and open; but when his eyes narrowed with
+determination it became blank and cold. When he saw his young friend
+sidle over to him he smiled and nodded a hearty welcome.
+
+
+
+"They's shore cuttin' her loose," remarked Hopalong.
+
+"First two pairs forward an' back!--they shore is," responded the
+prompter.
+
+"Who's th' gent playin' lady to Buck?" Queried Hopalong.
+
+"Forward again an' ladies change!--Billy Jordan."
+
+Hopalong watched the couple until they swung around and then he laughed
+silently. "Buck's got too many feet," he seriously remarked to his
+friend.
+
+"Swing th' girl yu loves th' best!--he ain't lonesome, look at that--"
+
+Two shots rang out in quick succession and Harris stumbled, wheeled and
+pitched forward on his face as Hopalong's sombrero spun across his
+body. For a second there was an intense silence, heavy, strained
+and sickening. Then a roar broke forth and the crowd of frenzied
+merry-makers, headed by Hopalong, poured out into the street and spread
+out to search the town. As daylight dawned the searchers began to
+straggle back with the same report of failure. Buck and Red met on the
+street near the door and each looked questioningly at the other. Each
+shook his head and looked around, their fingers toying absentmindedly at
+their belts. Finally Buck cleared his throat and remarked casually,
+
+"Mebby he's following 'em."
+
+Red nodded and they went over toward their horses. As they were
+hesitating which route to take, Billy Jordan came up.
+
+"Mebby yu'd like to see yore pardner--he's out by Buzzard's Spring. We'll
+take care of him," jerking his thumb over his shoulder toward the saloon
+where Harris's body lay. "And we'll all git th' others later. They
+cain't git away for long."
+
+Buck and Red nodded and headed for Buzzard's Spring. As they neared the
+water hole they saw Hopalong sitting on a rock, his head resting in one
+hand while the other hung loosely from his knee. He did not notice
+them when they arrived, and with a ready tact they sat quietly on their
+horses and looked in every direction except toward him. The sun became
+a ball of molten fire and the sand flies annoyed them incessantly, but
+still they sat and waited, silent and apologetic.
+
+Hopalong finally arose, reached for his sombrero, and, finding it gone,
+swore long and earnestly at the scene its loss brought before him. He
+walked over to his horse and, leaping into the saddle, turned and faced
+his friends. "Yu old sons-of-guns," he said. They looked sheepish and
+nodded negatively in answer to the look of inquiry in his eyes. "They
+ain't got 'em yet," remarked Red slowly. Hopalong straightened up, his
+eyes narrowed and his face became hard and resolute as he led the way
+back toward the town.
+
+Buck rode up beside him and, wiping his face with his shirt sleeve,
+began to speak to Red. "We might look up th' Joneses, Red. They had been
+dodgin' th' sheriff purty lively lately, an' they was huntin' Hopalong.
+Ever since we had to kill their brother in Buckskin they has been
+yappin' as how they was goin' to wipe us out. Hopalong an' Harris was
+standin' clost together an' they tried for both. They shot twice, one
+for Harris an' one for Hopalong, an' what more do yu want?"
+
+"It shore looks thataway, Buck," replied Red, biting into a huge plug of
+tobacco which he produced from his chaps. "Anyhow, they wouldn't be no
+loss if they didn't. Member what Pie said?"
+
+Hopalong looked straight ahead, and when he spoke the words sounded as
+though he had bitten them off: "Yore right, Buck, but I gits first try
+at Thirsty. He's my meat an' I'll plug th' fellow what says he ain't.
+Damn him!"
+
+The others replied by applying their spurs, and in a short time they
+dismounted before the Nugget and Rope. Thirsty wouldn't have a chance to
+not care how he dealt the cards.
+
+Buck and Red moved quickly through the crowd, speaking fast and
+earnestly. When they returned to where they had left their friend they
+saw him half a block away and they followed slowly, one on either side
+of the street. There would be no bullets in his back if they knew what
+they were about, and they usually did.
+
+As Hopalong neared the corner, Thirsty and his two brothers turned it
+and saw him. Thirsty said something in a low voice, and the other two
+walked across the street and disappeared behind the store. When assured
+that they were secure, Thirsty walked up to a huge boulder on the side
+of the street farthest from the store and turned and faced his enemy,
+who approached rapidly until about five paces away, when he slowed up
+and finally stopped.
+
+For a number of seconds they sized each other up, Hopalong quiet
+and deliberate with a deadly hatred; Thirsty pale and furtive with a
+sensation hitherto unknown to him. It was Right meeting Wrong, and Wrong
+lost confidence. Often had Thirsty Jones looked death in the face and
+laughed, but there was something in Hopalong's eyes that made his flesh
+creep.
+
+He glanced quickly past his foe and took in the scene with one flash of
+his eyes. There was the crowd, eager, expectant, scowling. There were
+Buck and Red, each lounging against a boulder, Buck on his right, Red
+on his left. Before him stood the only man he had ever feared. Hopalong
+shifted his feet and Thirsty, coming to himself with a start, smiled.
+His nerve had been shaken, but he was master of himself once more.
+
+"Well!" he snarled, scowling.
+
+Hopalong made no response, but stared him in the eyes.
+
+Thirsty expected action, and the deadly quiet of his enemy oppressed
+him. He stared in turn, but the insistent searching of his opponent's
+eyes scorched him and he shifted his gaze to Hopalong's neck.
+
+"Well!" he repeated uneasily.
+
+"Did yu have a nice time at th' dance last night?" Asked Hopalong, still
+searching the face before him.
+
+"Was there a dance? I was over in Alameda," replied Thirsty shortly.
+
+"Ya-as, there was a dance, an' yu can shoot purty durn far if yu was in
+Alameda," responded Hopalong, his voice low and monotonous.
+
+Thirsty shifted his feet and glanced around. Buck and Red were still
+lounging against their bowlders and apparently were not paying any
+attention to the proceedings. His fickle nerve came back again, for
+he knew he would receive fair play. So he faced Hopalong once more and
+regarded him with a cynical smile.
+
+"Yu seems to worry a whole lot about me. Is it because yu has a
+tender feelin', or because it's none of yore blame business?" He asked
+aggressively.
+
+Hopalong paled with sudden anger, but controlled himself.
+
+"It's because yu murdered Harris," he replied.
+
+"Shoo! An' how does yu figger it out?" Asked Thirsty, jauntily.
+
+"He was huntin' yu hard an' yu thought yu'd stop it, so yu came in to
+lay for him. When yu saw me an' him together yu saw di' chance to
+wipe out another score. That's how I figger it out," replied Hopalong
+quietly.
+
+"Yore a reg'lar 'tective, ain't yu?" Thirsty asked ironically.
+
+"I've got common sense," responded Hopalong.
+
+"Yu has? Yu better tell th' rest that, too," replied Thirsty.
+
+"I know yu shot Harris, an' yu can't get out of it by makin' funny
+remarks. Anyhow, yu won't be much loss, an' th' stage company'll feel
+better, too."
+
+"Shoo! An' suppose I did shoot him, I done a good job, didn't I?"
+
+"Yu did the worst job yu could do, yu highway robber," softly said
+Hopalong, at the same time moving nearer. "Harris knew yu stopped th'
+stage last month, an' that's why yu've been dodgin' him."
+
+"Yore a liar!" shouted Thirsty, reaching for his gun.
+
+The movement was fatal, for before he could draw, the Colt in Hopalong's
+holster leaped out and flashed from its owner's hip and Thirsty fell
+sideways, face down in the dust of the street.
+
+Hopalong started toward the fallen man, but as he did so a shot rang out
+from behind the store and he pitched forward, stumbled and rolled behind
+the bowlder. As he stumbled his left hand streaked to his hip, and when
+he fell he had a gun in each hand.
+
+As he disappeared from sight Goodeye and Bill Jones stepped from behind
+the store and started to run away. Not able to resist the temptation to
+look again, they stopped and turned and Bill laughed.
+
+"Easy as sin," he said.
+
+"Run, yu fool--Red an' Buck'll be here. Want to git plugged?" shouted
+Goodeye angrily.
+
+They turned and started for a group of ponies twenty yards away, and as
+they leaped into the saddles two shots were fired from the street. As
+the reports died away Buck and Red turned the corner of the store, Colts
+in hand, and, checking their rush as they saw the saddles emptied, they
+turned toward the street and saw Hopalong, with blood oozing from an
+abrasion on his cheek, sitting up cross-legged, with each hand holding a
+gun, from which came thin wisps of smoke.
+
+"Th' son-of-a-gun!" cried Buck, proud and delighted.
+
+"Th' son-of-a-gun!" echoed Red, grinning.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. Hopalong Keeps His Word
+
+The waters of the Rio Grande slid placidly toward the Gulf, the hot sun
+branding the sleepy waters with streaks of molten fire. To the north
+arose from the gray sandy plain the Quitman Mountains, and beyond them
+lay Bass Ca on. From the latter emerged a solitary figure astride a
+broncho, and as he ascended the topmost rise he glanced below him at the
+placid stream and beyond it into Mexico. As he sat quietly in his saddle
+he smiled and laughed gently to himself. The trail he had just followed
+had been replete with trouble which had suited the state of his mind
+and he now felt humorous, having cleaned up a pressing debt with his
+six-shooter. Surely there ought to be a mild sort of excitement in the
+land he faced, something picturesque and out of the ordinary. This
+was to be the finishing touch to his trip, and he had left his two
+companions at Albuquerque in order that he might have to himself all
+that he could find.
+
+Not many miles to the south of him lay the town which had been the
+rendezvous of Tamale Jose, whose weakness had been a liking for other
+people's cattle. Well he remembered his first man hunt: the discovery
+of the theft, the trail and pursuit and--the ending. He was scarcely
+eighteen years of age when that event took place, and the wisdom he had
+absorbed then had stood him in good stead many times since. He had even
+now a touch of pride at the recollection how, when his older companions
+had failed to get Tamale Jose, he with his undeveloped strategy had
+gained that end. The fight would never be forgotten, as it was his
+first, and no sight of wounds would ever affect him as did those of Red
+Connors as he lay huddled up in the dark corner of that old adobe hut.
+
+He came to himself and laughed again as he thought of Carmencita, the
+first girl he had ever known--and the last. With a boy's impetuosity he
+had wooed her in a manner far different from that of the peons who sang
+beneath her window and talked to her mother. He had boldly scaled the
+wall and did his courting in her house, trusting to luck and to his
+own ability to avoid being seen. No hidden meaning lay in his words;
+he spoke from his heart and with no concealment. And he remembered the
+treachery that had forced him, fighting, to the camp of his outfit; and
+when he had returned with his friends she had disappeared.
+
+To this day he hated that mud-walled convent and those sisters who
+so easily forgot how to talk. The fragrance of the old days wrapped
+themselves around him, and although he had ceased to pine for his
+black-eyed Carmencita-well, it would be nice if he chanced to see her
+again. Spurring his mount into an easy canter he swept down to and
+across the river, fording it where he had crossed it when pursuing
+Tamale Jose.
+
+The town lay indolent under the Mexican night, and the strumming of
+guitars and the tinkle of spurs and tiny bells softly echoed from
+several houses. The convent of St. Maria lay indistinct in its heavy
+shadows and the little church farther up the dusty street showed dim
+lights in its stained windows. Off to the north became audible the
+rhythmic beat of a horse and soon a cowboy swept past the convent with a
+mocking bow.
+
+He clattered across the stone-paved plaza and threw his mount back
+on its haunches as he stopped before a house. Glancing around and
+determining to find out a few facts as soon as possible, he rode up
+to the low door and pounded upon it with the butt of his Colt. After
+waiting for possibly half a minute and receiving no response he hammered
+a tune upon it with two Colts and had the satisfaction of seeing half a
+score of heads protrude from the windows in the nearby houses.
+
+"If I could scare up another gun I might get th' whole blamed town up,"
+he grumbled whimsically, and fell on the door with another tune.
+
+"Who is it?" came from within. The voice was distinctly feminine and
+Hopalong winked to himself in congratulation.
+
+"Me," he replied, twirling his fingers from his nose at the curious,
+forgetting that the darkness hid his actions from sight.
+
+"Yes, I know; but who is 'me'?" Came from the house.
+
+"Ain't I a fool!" he complained to himself, and raising his voice he
+replied coaxingly, "Open th' door a bit an' see. Are yu Carmencita?"
+
+"O-o-o! but you must tell me who it is first."
+
+"Mr. Cassidy," he replied, flushing at the 'mister,' "an' I wants to see
+Carmencita."
+
+"Carmencita who?" teasingly came from behind the door. Hopalong
+scratched his head. "Gee, yu've roped me--I suppose she has got another
+handle. Oh, yu know--she used to live here about seven years back. She
+had great big black eyes, pretty cheeks an' a mouth that 'ud stampede
+anybody. Don't yu know now? She was about so high," holding out his
+hands in the darkness.
+
+The door opened a trifle on a chain and Hopalong peered eagerly forward.
+
+"Ah, it is you, the brave Americano! You must go away quick or you will
+meet with harm. Manuel is awfully jealous and he will kill you! Go at
+once, please!"
+
+Hopalong pulled at the half-hearted down upon his lip and laughed
+softly. Then he slid the guns back in their holsters and felt for his
+sombrero.
+
+"Manuel wants to see me first, Star Eyes."
+
+"No! no!" she replied, stamping upon the floor vehemently. "You must go
+now--at once!"
+
+"I'd shore look nice hittin' th' trail because Manuel Somebody wants
+to get hurt, wouldn't I? Don't yu remember how I used to shinny up this
+here wall an' skin th' cat gettin' through that hole up there what yu
+said was a window? Ah, come on an' open th' door--I'd shore like to see
+yu again!" pleaded the irrepressible.
+
+"No! no! Go away. Oh, won't you please go away!"
+
+Hopalong sighed audibly and turned his horse. As he did so he heard the
+door open and a sigh reached his ears. He wheeled like a flash and found
+the door closed again on its chain. A laugh of delight came from behind
+it.
+
+"Come out, please!--just for a minute," he begged, wishing that he was
+brave enough to smash the door to splinters and grab her.
+
+"If I do, will you go away?" Asked the girl. "Oh, what will Manuel say
+if he comes? And all those people, they'll tell him!"
+
+"Hey, yu!" shouted Hopalong, brandishing his Colts at the protruding
+heads. "Git scarce! I'll shore plug th' last one in!" Then he laughed at
+the sudden vanishing.
+
+The door slowly opened and Carmencita, fat and drowsy, wobbled out
+to him. Hopalong's feelings were interfering with his breathing as he
+surveyed her. "Oh, yu shore are mistaken, Mrs. Carmencita. I wants to
+see yore daughter!"
+
+"Ah, you have forgotten the little Carmencita who used to look for you.
+Like all the men, you have forgotten," she cooed reproachfully. Then her
+fear predominated again and she cried, "Oh, if my husband should see me
+now!"
+
+Hopalong mastered his astonishment and bowed. He had a desire to ride
+madly into the Rio Grande and collect his senses.
+
+"Yu are right--this is too dangerous--I'll amble on some," he replied
+hastily. Under his breath he prayed that the outfit would never learn
+of this. He turned his horse and rode slowly up the street as the door
+closed.
+
+Rounding the corner he heard a soft footfall, and swerving in his saddle
+he turned and struck with all his might in the face of a man who leaped
+at him, at the same time grasping the uplifted wrist with his other
+hand. A curse and the tinkle of thin steel on the pavement accompanied
+the fall of his opponent. Bending down from his saddle he picked up the
+weapon and the next minute the enraged assassin was staring into the
+unwavering and, to him, growing muzzle of a Colt's .45.
+
+"Yu shore had a bum teacher. Don't yu know better'n to push it in? An'
+me a cowpuncher, too! I'm most grieved at yore conduct--it shows you
+don't appreciate cow-wrastlers. This is safer," he remarked, throwing
+the stiletto through the air and into a door, where it rang out angrily
+and quivered. "I don't know as I wants to ventilate yu; we mostly
+poisons coyotes up my way," he added. Then a thought struck him. "Yu
+must be that dear Manuel I've been hearin' so much about?"
+
+A snarl was the only reply and Hopalong grinned.
+
+"Yu shore ain't got no call to go loco that way, none whatever. I don't
+want yore Carmencita. I only called to say hulloo," responded Hopalong,
+his sympathies being aroused for the wounded man before him from his
+vivid recollection of the woman who had opened the door.
+
+"Yah!" snarled Manuel. "You wants to poison my little bird. You with
+your fair hair and your cursed swagger!"
+
+The six-shooter tentatively expanded and stopped six inches from the
+Mexican's nose. "Yu wants to ride easy, hombre. I ain't no angel, but I
+don't poison no woman; an' don't yu amble off with th' idea in yore head
+that she wants to be poisoned. Why, she near stuck a knife in me!" he
+lied.
+
+The Mexican's face brightened somewhat, but it would take more than that
+to wipe out the insult of the blow. The horse became restless, and when
+Hopalong had effectively quieted it he spoke again.
+
+"Did yu ever hear of Tamale Jose?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, I'm th' fellow that stopped him in th' 'dobe hut by th' arroyo.
+I'm tellin' yu this so yu won't do nothin' rash an' leave Carmencita a
+widow. Sabe?"
+
+The hate on the Mexican's face redoubled and he took a short step
+forward, but stopped when the muzzle of the Colt kissed his nose. He was
+the brother of Tamale Jose. As he backed away from the cool touch of
+the weapon he thought out swiftly his revenge. Some of his brother's
+old companions were at that moment drinking mescal in a saloon down the
+street, and they would be glad to see this Americano die. He glanced
+past his house at the saloon and Hopalong misconstrued his thoughts.
+
+"Shore, go home. I'll just circulate around some for exercise. No hard
+feelings, only yu better throw it next time," he said as he backed away
+and rode off. Manuel went down the street and then ran into the saloon,
+where he caused an uproar.
+
+Hopalong rode to the end of the plaza and tried to sing, but it was a
+dismal failure. Then he felt thirsty and wondered why he hadn't thought
+of it before. Turning his horse and seeing the saloon he rode up to it
+and in, lying flat on the animal's neck to avoid being swept off by the
+door frame. His entrance scared white some half a dozen loungers, who
+immediately sprang up in a decidedly hostile manner. Hopalong's Colts
+peeped over the ears of his horse and he backed into a corner near the
+bar.
+
+"One, two, three--now, altogether, breathe! Yu acts like yu never saw a
+real puncher afore. All th' same," he remarked, nodding at several
+of the crowd, "I've seen yu afore. Yu are th' gents with th' hot-foot
+get-a-way that vamoosed when we got Tamale."
+
+Curses were flung at him and only the humorous mood he was in saved
+trouble. One, bolder than the rest, spoke up: "The senor will not see
+any 'hot-foot get-a-way,' as he calls it, now! The senor was not wise to
+go so far away from his friends!"'
+
+Hopalong looked at the speaker and a quizzical grin slowly spread over
+his face. "They'll shore feel glad when I tells them yu was askin' for
+'em. But didn't yu see too much of 'em once, or was yu poundin' leather
+in the other direction? Yu don't want to worry none about me--an' if yu
+don't get yore hands closter to yore neck they'll be heck to pay! There,
+that's more like home," he remarked, nodding assurance.
+
+Reaching over he grasped a bottle and poured out a drink, his Colt
+slipping from his hand and dangling from his wrist by a thong. As the
+weapon started to fall several of the audience involuntarily moved as if
+to pick it up. Hopalong noticed this and paused with the glass half
+way to his lips. "Don't bother yoreselves none; I can git it again," he
+said, tossing off the liquor.
+
+"Wow! Holy smoke!" he yelled. "This ain't drink! Sufferin' coyotes,
+nobody can accuse yu of sellin' liquor! Did yu make this all by
+yoreself?" He asked incredulously of the proprietor, who didn't know
+whether to run or to pray. Then he noticed that the crowd was spreading
+out and his Colts again became the center of interest.
+
+"Yu with th' lovely face, sit down!" he ordered as the person addressed
+was gliding toward the door. "I ain't a-goin' to let yu pot me from th'
+street. Th' first man who tries to get scarce will stop somethin' hot.
+An' yu all better sit down," he suggested, sweeping them with his guns.
+One man, more obdurate than the rest, was slow in complying and Hopalong
+sent a bullet through the top of his high sombrero, which had a most
+gratifying effect.
+
+"You'll regret this!" hissed a man in the rear, and a murmur of
+assent arose. Some one stirred slightly in searching for a weapon and
+immediately a blazing Colt froze him into a statue.
+
+"Yu shore looks funny; eeny, meeny, miny, mo," counted off the daring
+horseman; "move a bit an' off yu go," he finished. Then his face broke
+out in another grin as he thought of more enjoyment.
+
+"That there gent on th' left," he said, pointing out with a gun the man
+he meant. "Yu sing us a song. Sing a nice little song."
+
+As the object of his remarks remained mute he let his thumb
+ostentatiously slide back with the hammer of the gun under it. "Sing!
+Quick!" The man sang.
+
+As Hopalong leaned forward to say something a stiletto flashed past his
+neck and crashed into the bottle beside him. The echo of the crash was
+merged into a report as Hopalong fired from his waist. Then he backed
+out into the Street and, wheeling, galloped across the plaza and again
+faced the saloon. A flash split the darkness and a bullet hummed over
+his head and thudded into an adobe wall at his back. Another shot and he
+replied, aiming at the flash.
+
+From down the Street came the sound of a window opening and he promptly
+caused it to close again. Several more windows opened and hastily
+closed, and he rode slowly toward the far end of the plaza. As he faced
+the saloon once more he heard a command to throw up his hands and saw
+the glint of a gun, held by a man who wore the insignia of sheriff.
+Hopalong complied, but as his hands went up two spurts of fire shot
+forth and the sheriff dropped his weapon, reeled and sat down. Hopalong
+rode over to him and swinging down, picked up the gun and looked the
+officer over.
+
+
+
+"Shoo, yu'll be all right soon--yore only plugged in th' arms," he
+remarked as he glanced up the street. Shadowy forms were gliding from
+cover to cover and he immediately caused consternation among them by
+his accuracy. "Ain't it sad?" He complained to the wounded man. "I never
+starts out but what somebody makes me shoot 'em. Came down here to see
+a girl an' find she's married. Then when I moves on peaceable--like her
+husband makes me hit him. Then I wants a drink an' he goes an' fans a
+knife at me, an' me just teachin' him how! Then yu has to come along an'
+make more trouble".
+
+"Now look at them fools over there," he said, pointing at a dark shadow
+some fifty paces off. "They're pattin' their backs because I don't
+see 'em, an' if I hurts them they'll git mad. Guess I'll make 'em dust
+along," he added, shooting into the spot. A howl went up and two men ran
+away at top speed.
+
+The sheriff nodded his sympathy and spoke. "I reckons you had better
+give up. You can't get away. Every house, every corner and shadow holds
+a man. You are a brave man, but, as you say, unfortunate. Better help me
+up and come with me--they'll tear you to pieces."
+
+"Shore I'll help yu up--I ain't got no grudge against nobody. But my
+friends know where I am an' they'll come down here an' raise a ruction
+if I don't show up. So, if it's all th' same to you, I'll be ambling
+right along," he said as he helped the sheriff to his feet.
+
+"Have you any objections to telling me your name?" Asked the sheriff as
+he looked himself over.
+
+"None whatever," answered Hopalong heartily. "I'm Hopalong Cassidy of
+th' Bar 20, Texas."
+
+"You don't surprise me--I've heard of you," replied the sheriff wearily.
+"You are the man who killed Tamale Jose, whom I hunted for unceasingly.
+I found him when you had left and I got the reward. Come again some
+time and I'll divide with you; two hundred and fifty dollars," he added
+craftily.
+
+"I shore will, but I don't want no money," replied Hopalong as he turned
+away. "Adios, senor," he called back.
+
+"Adios," replied the sheriff as he kicked a nearby door for assistance.
+
+The cow-pony tied itself up in knots as it pounded down the street
+toward the trail, and although he was fired on he swung into the dusty
+trail with a song on his lips. Several hours later he stood dripping wet
+on the American side of the Rio Grande and shouted advice to a score of
+Mexican cavalrymen on the opposite bank. Then he slowly picked his way
+toward El Paso for a game at Faro Dan's.
+
+The sheriff sat in his easy chair one night some three weeks later,
+gravely engaged in rolling a cigarette. His arms were practically well,
+the wounds being in the fleshy parts. He was a philosopher and was
+disposed to take things easy, which accounted for his being in his
+official position for fifteen years. A gentleman at the core, he was
+well educated and had visited a goodly portion of the world. A book of
+Horace lay open on his knees and on the table at his side lay a shining
+new revolver, Hopalong having carried off his former weapon. He read
+aloud several lines and in reaching for a light for his cigarette
+noticed the new six-shooter. His mind leaped from Horace to Hopalong,
+and he smiled grimly at the latter's promise to call.
+
+Glancing up, his eyes fell on a poster which conveyed the information in
+Spanish and in English that there was offered
+
+      +--------------------------------------+
+           | |  FIVE HUNDRED PESOS | |
+
+                    REWARD
+
+         For Hopalong Cassidy, of the Ranch
+
+      | | Known as the Bar-20, Texas, U. S. A. | |
+
+      +--------------------------------------+
+
+and which gave a good description of that gentleman.
+
+Sighing for the five hundred, he again took up his book and was lost in
+its pages when he heard a knock, rather low and timid. Wearily laying
+aside his reading, he strode to the door, expecting to hear a lengthy
+complaint from one of his townsmen. As he threw the door wide open the
+light streamed out and lighted up a revolver and behind it the beaming
+face of a cowboy, who grinned.
+
+"Well, I'll be damned!" ejaculated the sheriff, starting back in
+amazement.
+
+"Don't say that, sheriff; you've got lots of time to reform," replied a
+humorous voice. "How's th' wings?"
+
+"Almost well: you were considerate," responded the sheriff. "Let's go
+in--somebody might see me out here an' get into trouble," suggested the
+visitor, placing his foot on the sill.
+
+"Certainly--pardon my discourtesy," said the sheriff. "You see, I
+wasn't expecting you to-night," he explained, thinking of the
+elaborate preparations that he would have gone to if he had thought the
+irrepressible would call.
+
+"Well, I was down this way, an' seeing as how I had promised to drop
+in I just natchurally dropped," replied Hopalong as he took the chair
+proffered by his host.
+
+After talking awhile on everything and nothing the sheriff coughed and
+looked uneasily at his guest.
+
+"Mr. Cassidy, I am sorry you called, for I like men of your energy and
+courage and I very much dislike to arrest you," remarked the sheriff.
+"Of course you understand that you are under arrest," he added with
+anxiety.
+
+"Who, me?" Asked Hopalong with a rising inflection.
+
+"Most assuredly," breathed the sheriff.
+
+"Why, this is the first time I ever heard anything about it," replied
+the astonished cow-puncher. "I'm an American--don't that make any
+difference?"
+
+"Not in this case, I'm afraid. You see, it's for manslaughter."
+
+"Well, don't that beat th' devil, now?" Said Hopalong. He felt sorry
+that a citizen of the glorious United States should be prey for
+troublesome sheriffs, but he was sure that his duty to Texas called upon
+him never to submit to arrest at the hands of a Mexican. Remembering
+the Alamo, and still behind his Colt, he reached over and took up the
+shining weapon from the table and snapped it open on his knee. After
+placing the cartridges in his pocket he tossed the gun over on the bed
+and, reaching inside his shirt, drew out another and threw it after the
+first.
+
+"That's yore gun; I forgot to leave it," he said, apologetically.
+"Anyhow yu needs two," he added.
+
+Then he glanced around the room, noticed the poster and walked over
+and read it. A full swift sweep of his gloved hand tore it from its
+fastenings and crammed it under his belt. The glimmer of anger in his
+eyes gave way as he realized that his head was worth a definite price,
+and he smiled at what the boys would say when he showed it to them.
+Planting his feet far apart and placing his arms akimbo he faced his
+host in grim defiance.
+
+"Got any more of these?" He inquired, placing his hand on the poster
+under his belt.
+
+"Several," replied the sheriff.
+
+"Trot 'em out," ordered Hopalong shortly.
+
+The sheriff sighed, stretched and went over to a shelf, from which he
+took a bundle of the articles in question. Turning slowly he looked at
+the puncher and handed them to him.
+
+"I reckons they's all over this here town," remarked Hopalong.
+
+"They are, and you may never see Texas again."
+
+"So? Well, yu tell yore most particular friends that the job is worth
+five thousand, and that it will take so many to do it that when th'
+mazuma is divided up it won't buy a meal. There's only one man in this
+country tonight that can earn that money, an' that's me," said the
+puncher. "An' I don't need it," he added, smiling.
+
+"But you are my prisoner--you are under arrest," enlightened the sheriff,
+rolling another cigarette. The sheriff spoke as if asking a question.
+Never before had five hundred dollars been so close at hand and yet so
+unobtainable. It was like having a check-book but no bank account.
+
+"I'm shore sorry to treat yu mean," remarked Hopalong, "but I was paid a
+month in advance an' I'll have to go back an' earn it."
+
+"You can--if you say that you will return," replied the sheriff
+tentatively. The sheriff meant what he said and for the moment had
+forgotten that he was powerless and was not the one to make terms.
+
+Hopalong was amazed and for a time his ideas of Mexicans staggered under
+the blow. Then he smiled sympathetically as he realized that he faced a
+white man.
+
+"Never like to promise nothin'," he replied. "I might get plugged, or
+something might happen that wouldn't let me." Then his face lighted up
+as a thought came to him. "Say, I'll cut di' cards with yu to see if I
+comes back or not."
+
+The sheriff leaned back and gazed at the cool youngster before him.
+A smile of satisfaction, partly at the self-reliance of his guest and
+partly at the novelty of his situation, spread over his face. He reached
+for a pack of Mexican cards and laughed. "Man! You're a cool one--I'll do
+it. What do you call?"
+
+"Red," answered Hopalong.
+
+The sheriff slowly raised his hand and revealed the ace of hearts.
+Hopalong leaned back and laughed, at the same time taking from his
+pocket the six extracted cartridges. Arising and going over to the
+bed he slipped them in the chambers of the new gun and then placed the
+loaded weapon at the sheriff's elbow.
+
+"Well, I reckon I'll amble, sheriff," he said as he opened the door. "If
+yu ever sifts up my way drop in an' see me--th' boys'll give yu a good
+time."
+
+"Thanks; I will be glad to," replied the sheriff. "You'll take your
+pitcher to the well once too often some day, my friend. This courtesy,"
+glancing at the restored revolver, "might have cost you dearly."
+
+"Shoo! I did that once an' th' feller tried to use it," replied
+the cowboy as he backed through the door. "Some people are awfully
+careless," he added. "So long--"
+
+"So long," replied the sheriff, wondering what sort of a man he had been
+entertaining.
+
+The door closed softly and soon after a joyous whoop floated in from
+the Street. The sheriff toyed with the new gun and listened to the low
+caress of a distant guitar.
+
+"Well, don't that beat all?" He ejaculated.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. The Advent of McAllister
+
+
+The blazing sun shone pitilessly on an arid plain which was spotted
+with dust-gray clumps of mesquite and thorny chaparral. Basking in the
+burning sand and alkali lay several Gila monsters, which raised their
+heads and hissed with wide-open jaws as several faint, whip-like reports
+echoed flatly over the desolate plain, showing that even they had
+learned that danger was associated with such sounds.
+
+Off to the north there became visible a cloud of dust and at intervals
+something swayed in it, something that rose and fell and then became
+hidden again. Out of that cloud came sharp, splitting sounds, which were
+faintly responded to by another and larger cloud in its rear. As it came
+nearer and finally swept past, the Gilas, to their terror, saw a madly
+pounding horse, and it carried a man. The latter turned in his saddle
+and raised a gun to his shoulder and the thunder that issued from it
+caused the creeping audience to throw up their tails in sudden panic and
+bury themselves out of sight in the sand.
+
+The horse was only a broncho, its sides covered with hideous yellow
+spots, and on its near flank was a peculiar scar, the brand. Foam
+flecked from its crimsoned jaws and found a resting place on its sides
+and on the hairy chaps of its rider. Sweat rolled and streamed from its
+heaving flanks and was greedily sucked up by the drought-cursed alkali.
+Close to the rider's knee a bloody furrow ran forward and one of the
+broncho's ears was torn and limp. The broncho was doing its best--it
+could run at that pace until it dropped dead. Every ounce of strength it
+possessed was put forth to bring those hind hoofs well in front of
+the forward ones and to send them pushing the sand behind in streaming
+clouds. The horse had done this same thing many times--when would its
+master learn sense?
+
+The man was typical in appearance with many of that broad land. Lithe,
+sinewy and bronzed by hard riding and hot suns, he sat in his Cheyenne
+saddle like a centaur, all his weight on the heavy, leather-guarded
+stirrups, his body rising in one magnificent straight line. A bleached
+moustache hid the thin lips, and a gray sombrero threw a heavy shadow
+across his eyes. Around his neck and over his open, blue flannel
+shirt lay loosely a knotted silk kerchief, and on his thighs a pair of
+open-flapped holsters swung uneasily with their ivory handled burdens.
+He turned abruptly, raised his gun to his shoulder and fired, then
+he laughed recklessly and patted his mount, which responded to
+the confident caress by lying flatter to the earth in a spurt of
+heart-breaking speed.
+
+"I'll show 'em who they're trailin'. This is th' second time I've
+started for Muddy Wells, an' I'm goin' to git there, too, for all th'
+Apaches out of Hades!"
+
+To the south another cloud of dust rapidly approached and the rider
+scanned it closely, for it was directly in his path. As he watched it
+he saw something wave and it was a sombrero! Shortly afterward a real
+cowboy yell reached his ears. He grinned and slid another cartridge in
+the greasy, smoking barrel of the Sharp's and fired again at the cloud
+in his rear. Some few minutes later a whooping, bunched crowd of madly
+riding cowboys thundered past him and he was recognized.
+
+"Hullo, Frenchy!" yelled the nearest one. "Comin' back?"
+
+"Come on, McAllister!" shouted another; "we'll give 'em blazes!" In
+response the straining broncho suddenly stiffened, bunched and slid on
+its haunches, wheeled and retraced its course. The rear cloud suddenly
+scattered into many smaller ones and all swept off to the east. The
+rescuing band overtook them and, several hours later, when seated around
+a table in Tom Lee's saloon, Muddy Wells, a count was taken of them,
+which was pleasing in its facts.
+
+"We was huntin' coyotes when we saw yu," said a smiling puncher who was
+known as Salvation Carroll chiefly because he wasn't.
+
+"Yep! They've been stalkin' Tom's chickens," supplied Waffles, the
+champion poker player of the outfit. Tom Lee's chickens could whip
+anything of their kind for miles around and were reverenced accordingly.
+
+"Sho! Is that so?" Asked Frenchy with mild incredulity, such a state of
+affairs being deplorable.
+
+"She shore is!" answered Tex Le Blanc, and then, as an afterthought, he
+added, "Where'd yu hit th' War-whoops?"
+
+"'Bout four hours back. This here's th' second time I've headed for this
+place--last time they chased me to Las Cruces."
+
+"That so?" Asked Bigfoot Baker, a giant. "Ain't they allus interferin',
+now? Anyhow, they're better'n coyotes."
+
+"They was purty well heeled," suggested Tex, glancing at a bunch of
+repeating Winchesters of late model which lay stacked in a corner.
+"Charley here said he thought they was from th' way yore cayuse looked,
+didn't yu, Charley?" Charley nodded and filled his pipe.
+
+"'Pears like a feller can't amble around much nowadays without havin' to
+fight," grumbled Lefty Allen, who usually went out of his way hunting up
+trouble.
+
+"We're goin' to th' Hills as soon as our cookie turns up," volunteered
+Tenspot Davis, looking inquiringly at Frenchy. "Heard any more news?"
+
+"Nope. Same old story--lots of gold. Shucks, I've bit on so many of them
+rumors that they don't feaze me no more. One man who don't know nothin'
+about prospectin' goes an' stumbles over a fortune an' those who know it
+from A to Izzard goes 'round pullin' in their belts."
+
+"We don't pull in no belts--we knows just where to look, don't we,
+Tenspot?" Remarked Tex, looking very wise.
+
+"Ya-as we do," answered Tenspot, "if yu hasn't dreamed about it, we do."
+
+"Yu wait; I wasn't dreamin', none whatever," assured Tex.
+
+"I saw it!"
+
+"Ya-as, I saw it too onct," replied Frenchy with sarcasm. "Went and
+lugged fifty pound of it all th' way to th' assay office--took me two
+days! an' that there four-eyed cuss looks at it and snickers. Then
+he takes me by di' arm an' leads me to th' window. 'See that pile, my
+friend? That's all like yourn,' sez he. 'It's worth about one simoleon a
+ton at th' coast. They use it for ballast.'"
+
+"Aw! But this what I saw was gold!" exploded Tex.
+
+"So was mine, for a while!" laughed Frenchy, nodding to the bartender
+for another round.
+
+"Well, we're tired of punchin' cows! Ride sixteen hours a day, year in
+an' year out, an' what do we get? Fifty a month an' no chance to spend
+it, an' grub that'd make a coyote sniffle! I'm for a vacation, an' if I
+goes broke, why, I'll punch again!" asserted Waffles, the foreman, thus
+revealing the real purpose of the trip.
+
+"What'd yore boss say?" Asked Frenchy.
+
+"Whoop! What didn't he say! Honest, I never thought he had it in him.
+It was fine. He cussed an hour frontways an' then trailed back on a dead
+gallop, with us a-laughin' fit to bust. Then he rustles for his gun an'
+we rustles for town," answered Waffles, laughing at his remembrance of
+it.
+
+As Frenchy was about to reply his sombrero was snatched from his
+head and disappeared. If he "got mad" he was to be regarded as not
+sufficiently well acquainted for banter and he was at once in hot water;
+if he took it good-naturedly he was one of the crowd in spirit; but in
+either case he didn't get his hat without begging or fighting for
+it. This was a recognized custom among the O-Bar-O outfit and was not
+intended as an insult.
+
+Frenchy grabbed at the empty air and arose. Punching Lefty playfully in
+the ribs he passed his hands behind that person's back. Not finding the
+lost head-gear he laughed and, tripping Lefty up, fell with him and,
+reaching up on the table for his glass, poured the contents down Lefty's
+back and arose.
+
+"Yu son-of-a-gun!" indignantly wailed that unfortunate. "Gee, it feels
+funny," he added, grinning as he pulled the wet shirt away from his
+spine.
+
+"Well, I've got to be amblin'," said Frenchy, totally ignoring the
+loss of his hat. "Goin' down to Buckskin," he offered, and then asked,
+"When's yore cook comin'?"
+
+"Day after to-morrow, if he don't get loaded," replied Tex.
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"A one-eyed Mexican--Quiensabe Antonio."
+
+"I used to know him. He's a heck of a cook. Dished up th' grub one
+season when I was punchin' for th' Tin-Cup up in Montana," replied
+Frenchy.
+
+"Oh, he kin cook now, all right." replied Waffles.
+
+"That's about all he can cook. Useter wash his knives in th' coffee pot
+an' blow on di' tins. I chased him a mile one night for leavin' sand in
+th' skillet. Yu can have him--I don't envy yu none whatever.
+
+"He don't sand no skillet when little Tenspot's around," assured that
+person, slapping his holster. "Does he, Lefty?"
+
+"If he does, yu oughter be lynched," consoled Lefty.
+
+"Well, so long," remarked Frenchy, riding off to a small store, where he
+bought a cheap sombrero.
+
+Frenchy was a jack-of-all-trades, having been cow-puncher, prospector,
+proprietor of a "hotel" in Albuquerque, foreman of a ranch, sheriff,
+and at one time had played angel to a venturesome but poor show troupe.
+Beside his versatility he was well known as the man who took the stage
+through the Sioux country when no one else volunteered. He could shoot
+with the best, but his one pride was the brand of poker he handed out.
+Furthermore, he had never been known to take an unjust advantage over
+any man and, on the contrary, had frequently voluntarily handicapped
+himself to make the event more interesting. But he must not be classed
+as being hampered with self-restraint.
+
+His reasons for making this trip were two-fold: he wished to see Buck
+Peters, the foreman of the Bar-20 outfit, as he and Buck had punched
+cows together twenty years before and were firm friends; the other was
+that he wished to get square with Hopalong Cassidy, who had decisively
+cleaned him out the year before at poker. Hopalong played either
+in great good luck or the contrary, while Frenchy played an even,
+consistent game and usually left off richer than when he began, and this
+decisive defeat bothered him more than he would admit, even to himself.
+
+The round-up season was at hand and the Bar-20 was short of ropers, the
+rumors of fresh gold discoveries in the Black Hills having drawn all the
+more restless men north. The outfit also had a slight touch of the gold
+fever, and only their peculiar loyalty to the ranch and the assurance
+of the foreman that when the work was over he would accompany them, kept
+them from joining the rush of those who desired sudden and much wealth
+as the necessary preliminary of painting some cow town in all the "bang
+up" style such an event would call for. Therefore they had been given
+orders to secure the required assistance, and they intended to do so,
+and were prepared to kidnap, if necessary, for the glamour of wealth and
+the hilarity of the vacation made the hours falter in their speed.
+
+As Frenchy leaned back in his chair in Cowan's saloon, Buckskin, early
+the next morning, planning to get revenge on Hopalong and then to
+recover his sombrero, he heard a medley of yells and whoops and soon the
+door flew open before the strenuous and concentrated entry of a mass
+of twisting and kicking arms and legs, which magically found their
+respective owners and reverted to the established order of things.
+
+When the alkali dust had thinned he saw seven cow-punchers sitting on
+the prostrate form of another, who was earnestly engaged in trying to
+push Johnny Nelson's head out in the street with one foot as he voiced
+his lucid opinion of things in general and the seven in particular.
+After Red Connors had been stabbed in the back several times by the
+victim's energetic elbow he ran out of the room and presently returned
+with a pleased expression and a sombrero full of water, his finger
+plugging an old bullet hole in the crown.
+
+"Is he any better, Buck?" Anxiously inquired the man with the reservoir.
+
+"About a dollar's worth," replied the foreman. "Jest put a little right
+here," he drawled as he pulled back the collar of the unfortunate's
+shirt.
+
+"Ow! wow! WOW!" wailed the recipient, heaving and straining. The
+unengaged leg was suddenly wrested loose, and as it shot up and out
+Billy Williams, with his pessimism aroused to a blue-ribbon pitch, sat
+down forcibly in an adjacent part of the room, from where he lectured
+between gasps on the follies of mankind and the attributes of army
+mules.
+
+Red tiptoed around the squirming bunch, looking for an opening, his
+pleased expression now having added a grin.
+
+"Seems to be gittin' violent-like," he soliloquized, as he aimed a
+stream at Hopalong's ear, which showed for a second as Pete Wilson
+strove for a half-nelson, and he managed to include Johnny and Pete in
+his effort.
+
+Several minutes later, when the storm had subsided, the woeful crowd
+enthusiastically urged Hopalong to the bar, where he "bought."
+
+"Of all th' ornery outfits I ever saw--" began the man at the table,
+grinning from ear to ear at the spectacle he had just witnessed.
+
+"Why, hullo, Frenchy! Glad to see yu, yu old son-of-a-gun! What's th'
+news from th' Hills?" Shouted Hopalong.
+
+"Rather locoed, an' there's a locoed gang that's headin' that way. Goin'
+up?" he asked.
+
+"Shore, after round-up. Seen any punchers trailin' around loose?"
+
+"Ya-as," drawled Frenchy, delving into the possibilities suddenly opened
+to him and determining to utilize to the fullest extent the opportunity
+that had come to him unsought. "There's nine over to Muddy Wells that yu
+might git if yu wants them bad enough. They've got a sombrero of mine,"
+he added deprecatingly.
+
+"Nine! Twisted Jerusalem, Buck! Nine whole cow-punchers a-pinin' for
+work," he shouted, but then added thoughtfully, "Mebby they's engaged,"
+it being one of the courtesies of the land not to take another man's
+help.
+
+"Nope. They've stampeded for th' Hills an' left their boss all alone,"
+replied Frenchy, well knowing that such desertion would not, in the
+minds of the Bar-20 men, add any merits to the case of the distant
+outfit.
+
+"Th' sons-of-guns," said Hopalong, "let's go an' get 'em," he suggested,
+turning to Buck, who nodded a smiling assent.
+
+"Oh, what's the hurry?" Asked Frenchy, seeing his projected game
+slipping away into the uncertain future and happy in the thought that he
+would be avenged on the O-Bar-O outfit.
+
+"They'll be there till to-morrow noon--they's waitin' for their cookie,
+who's goin' with them."
+
+"A cook! A cook! Oh, joy, a cook!" exulted Johnny, not for one instant
+doubting Buck's ability to capture the whole outfit and seeing a whirl
+of excitement in the effort.
+
+"Anybody we knows?" Inquired Skinny Thompson.
+
+"Shore. Tenspot Davis, Waffles, Salvation Carroll, Bigfoot Baker,
+Charley Lane, Lefty Allen, Kid Morris, Curley Tate an' Tex Le Blanc,"
+responded Frenchy.
+
+"Umm-m. Might as well rope a blizzard," grumbled Billy. "Might as well
+try to git th' Seventh Cavalry. We'll have a pious time corralling that
+bunch. Them's th' fellows that hit that bunch of inquirin' Crow braves
+that time up in th' Bad Lands an' then said by-bye to th' Ninth."
+
+"Aw, shut up! They's only two that's very much, an' Buck an' Hopalong
+can sing 'em to sleep," interposed Johnny, afraid that the expedition
+would fall through.
+
+"How about Curley and Tex?" Pugnaciously asked Billy.
+
+"Huh, jest because they buffaloed yu over to Las Vegas yu needn't think
+they's dangerous. Salvation an' Tenspot are only ones who can shoot,"
+stoutly maintained Johnny.
+
+"Here yu, get mum," ordered Buck to the pair. "When this outfit goes
+after anything it generally gets it. All in favor of kidnappin' that
+outfit signify di' same by kickin' Billy," whereupon Bill swore.
+
+"Do yu want yore hat?" Asked Buck, turning to Frenchy.
+
+"I shore do," answered that individual.
+
+"If yu helps us at th' round-up we'll get it for yu. Fifty a month an'
+grub," offered the foreman.
+
+"O.K." replied Frenchy, anxious to even matters.
+
+Buck looked at his watch. "Seven o'clock--we ought to get there by five
+if we relays at th' Barred-Horseshoe. Come on."
+
+"How are we goin' to git them?" Asked Billy.
+
+"Yu leave that to me, son. Hopalong an' Frenchy'll tend to that part of
+it," replied Buck, making for his horse and swinging into the saddle, an
+example which was followed by the others, including Frenchy.
+
+As they swung off Buck noticed the condition of Frenchy's mount and
+halted. "Yu take that cayuse back an' get Cowan's," he ordered.
+
+"That cayuse is good for Cheyenne--she eats work, an' besides I wants my
+own," laughed Frenchy.
+
+"Yu must had a reg'lar picnic from th' looks of that crease,"
+volunteered Hopalong, whose curiosity was mastering him. "Shoo! I had
+a little argument with some feather dusters--th' O-Bar-O crowd cleaned
+them up."
+
+"That so?" Asked Buck.
+
+"Yep! They sorter got into th' habit of chasin' me to Las Cruces an'
+forgot to stop."
+
+"How many'd yu get?" Asked Lanky Smith.
+
+"Twelve. Two got away. I got two before th' crowd showed up--that makes
+fo'teen."
+
+"Now th' cavalry'll be huntin' yu," croaked Billy.
+
+"Hunt nothin'! They was in war-paint-think I was a target?--Think I was
+goin' to call off their shots for 'em?"
+
+They relayed at the Barred-Horseshoe and went on their way at the same
+pace. Shortly after leaving the last-named ranch Buck turned to Frenchy
+and asked, "Any of that outfit think they can play poker?"
+
+"Shore. Waffles."
+
+"Does th' reverend Mr. Waffles think so very hard?"
+
+"He shore does."
+
+"Do th' rest of them mavericks think so too?"
+
+"They'd bet their shirts on him."
+
+At this juncture all were startled by a sudden eruption from Billy.
+"Haw! Haw! Haw!" he roared as the drift of Buck's intentions struck him.
+"Haw! Haw! Haw!"
+
+"Here, yu long-winded coyote," yelled Red, banging him over the head
+with his quirt, "If yu don't 'Haw! Haw!' away from my ear I'll make it
+a Wow! Wow! What d'yu mean? Think I am a echo cliff? Yu slabsided
+doodle-bug, yu!"
+
+"G'way, yu crimson topknot, think my head's a hunk of quartz? Fer a
+plugged peso I'd strew yu all over th' scenery!" shouted Billy, feigning
+anger and rubbing his head.
+
+"There ain't no scenery around here," interposed Lanky. "This here
+be-utiful prospect is a sublime conception of th' devil."
+
+"Easy, boy! Them highfalutin' words'il give yu a cramp some day. Yu talk
+like a newly-made sergeant," remarked Skinny.
+
+"He learned them words from the sky-pilot over at El Paso," volunteered
+Hopalong, winking at Red. "He used to amble down th' aisle afore the
+lights was lit so's he could get a front seat. That was all hunky for
+a while, but every time he'd go out to irrigate, that female
+organ-wrastler would seem to call th' music off for his special benefit.
+So in a month he'd sneak in an' freeze to a chair by th' door, an' after
+a while he'd shy like blazes every time he got within eye range of th'
+church."
+
+"Shore. But do yu know what made him get religion all of a sudden? He
+used to hang around on di' outside after th' joint let out an' trail
+along behind di' music-slinger, lookin' like he didn't know what to do
+with his hands. Then when he got woozy one time she up an' told him that
+she had got a nice long letter from her hubby. Then Mr. Lanky hit th'
+trail for Santa Fe so hard that there wasn't hardly none of it left. I
+didn't see him for a whole month," supplied Red innocently.
+
+"Yore shore funny, ain't yu?" sarcastically grunted Lanky. "Why, I can
+tell things on yu that'd make yu stand treat for a year."
+
+"I wouldn't sneak off to Santa Fe an' cheat yu out of them. Yu ought to
+be ashamed of yoreself."
+
+"Yah!" snorted the aggrieved little man. "I had business over to Santa
+Fe!"
+
+"Shore," endorsed Hopalong. "We've all had business over to Santa Fe.
+Why, about eight years ago I had business--"
+
+"Choke up," interposed Red. "About eight years ago yu was washin' pans
+for cookie, an' askin' me for cartridges. Buck used to larrup yu about
+four times a day eight years ago."
+
+To their roars of laughter Hopalong dropped to the rear, where,
+red-faced and quiet, he bent his thoughts on how to get square.
+
+"We'll have a pleasant time corralling that gang," began Billy for the
+third time.
+
+"For heaven's sake get off that trail!" replied Lanky. "We aint goin' to
+hold 'em up. De-plomacy's th' game."
+
+Billy looked dubious and said nothing. If he hadn't proven that he was
+as nervy as any man in the outfit they might have taken more stock in
+his grumbling.
+
+"What's the latest from Abilene way?" Asked Buck of Frenchy.
+
+"Nothin' much 'cept th' barb-wire ruction," replied the recruit.
+
+"What's that?" Asked Red, glancing apprehensively back at Hopalong.
+
+"Why, th' settlers put up barb-wire fence so's the cattle wouldn't get
+on their farms. That would a been all right, for there wasn't much of
+it. But some Britishers who own a couple of big ranches out there got
+smart all of a sudden an' strung wire all along their lines. Punchers
+crossin' th' country would run plumb into a fence an' would have to ride
+a day an' a half, mebbe, afore they found th' corner. Well, naturally,
+when a man has been used to ridin' where he blame pleases an' as
+straight as he pleases he ain't goin' to chase along a five-foot fence
+to Trisco when he wants to get to Waco. So th' punchers got to totin'
+wire-snips, an' when they runs up agin a fence they cuts down half a
+mile or so. Sometimes they'd tie their ropes to a strand an' pull off a
+couple of miles an' then go back after th' rest. Th' ranch bosses sent
+out men to watch th' fences an' told 'em to shoot any festive puncher
+that monkeyed with th' hardware. Well, yu know what happens when a
+puncher gets shot at."
+
+"When fences grow in Texas there'll be th' devil to pay," said Buck. He
+hated to think that some day the freedom of the range would be annulled,
+for he knew that it would be the first blow against the cowboys'
+occupation. When a man's cattle couldn't spread out all over the land he
+wouldn't have to keep so many men. Farms would spring up and the sun of
+the free-and-easy cowboy would slowly set.
+
+"I reckons th' cutters are classed th' same as rustlers," remarked Red
+with a gleam of temper.
+
+"By th' owners, but not by th' punchers; an' it's th' punchers that
+count," replied Frenchy.
+
+"Well, we'll give them a fight," interposed Hopalong, riding up. "When
+it gets so I can't go where I please I'll start on th' warpath. I won't
+buck the cavalry, but I'll keep it busy huntin' for me an' I'll have
+time to 'tend to th' wire-fence men, too. Why, we'll be told we can't
+tote our guns!"
+
+"They're sayin' that now," replied Frenchy. "Up in Buffalo, Smith, who's
+now marshal, makes yu leave 'em with th' bartenders."
+
+"I'd like to see any two-laigged cuss get my guns If I didn't want him
+to!" began Hopalong, indignant at the idea.
+
+"Easy, son," cautioned Buck. "Yu would do what th' rest did because yu
+are a square man. I'm about as hard-headed a puncher as ever straddled
+leather an' I've had to use my guns purty considerable, but I reckons if
+any decent marshal asked me to cache them in a decent way, why, I'd
+do it. An' let me brand somethin' on yore mind--I've heard of Smith of
+Buffalo, an' he's mighty nifty with his hands. He don't stand off an'
+tell yu to unload yore lead-ranch, but he ambles up close an' taps yu
+on yore shirt; if yu makes a gunplay he naturally knocks yu clean across
+th' room an' unloads yu afore yu gets yore senses back. He weighs about
+a hundred an' eighty an' he's shore got sand to burn."
+
+"Yah! When I makes a gun play she plays! I'd look nice in Abilene or
+Paso or Albuquerque without my guns, wouldn't I? Just because I totes
+them in plain sight I've got to hand 'em over to some liquor-wrastler? I
+reckons not! Some hip-pocket skunk would plug me afore I could wink. I'd
+shore look nice loping around a keno layout without my guns, in th'
+same town with some cuss huntin' me, wouldn't I? A whole lot of good a
+marshal would a done Jimmy, an' didn't Harris get his from a cur in th'
+dark?" shouted Hopalong, angered by the prospect.
+
+"We're talkin' about Buffalo, where everybody has to hang up their
+guns," replied Buck. "An' there's th' law--"
+
+"To blazes with th' law!" whooped Hopalong in Red's ear as he
+unfastened the cinch of Red's saddle and at the same time stabbing that
+unfortunate's mount with his spurs, thereby causing a hasty separation
+of the two. When Red had picked himself up and things had quieted down
+again the subject was changed, and several hours later they rode into
+Muddy Wells, a town with a little more excuse for its existence than
+Buckskin. The wells were in an arid valley west of Guadaloupe Pass, and
+were not only muddy but more or less alkaline.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER. X. Peace Hath its Victories
+
+
+As they neared the central group of buildings they heard a hilarious
+and assertive song which sprang from the door and windows of the main
+saloon. It was in jig time, rollicking and boisterous, but the words had
+evidently been improvised for the occasion, as they clashed immediately
+with those which sprang to the minds of the outfit, although they could
+not be clearly distinguished. As they approached nearer and finally
+dismounted, however, the words became recognizable and the visitors were
+at once placed in harmony with the air of jovial recklessness by the
+roaring of the verses and the stamping of the time.
+
+     Oh we're red-hot cow-punchers playin' on our luck,
+     An' there ain't a proposition that we won't buck:
+     From sunrise to sunset we've ridden on the range,
+     But now we're oft for a howlin' change.
+
+CHORUS
+
+     Laugh a little, sing a little, all th' day;
+     Play a little, drink a little--we can pay;
+     Ride a little, dig a little an' rich we'll grow.
+     Oh, we're that bunch from th' O-Bar-O!
+
+     Oh, there was a little tenderfoot an' he had a little gun,
+     An' th' gun an' him went a-trailin' up some fun.
+     They ambles up to Santa Fe' to find a quiet game,
+     An' now they're planted with some more of th' same!
+
+As Hopalong, followed by the others, pushed open the door and entered
+he took up the chorus with all the power of Texan lungs and even Billy
+joined in. The sight that met their eyes was typical of the men and the
+mood and the place. Leaning along the walls, lounging on the table and
+straddling chairs with their forearms crossed on the backs were nine
+cowboys, ranging from old twenty to young fifty in years, and all were
+shouting the song and keeping time with their hands and feet.
+
+In the center of the room was a large man dancing a fair buck-and-wing
+to the time so uproariously set by his companions. Hatless,
+neck-kerchief loose, holsters flapping, chaps rippling out and close,
+spurs clinking and perspiration streaming from his tanned face, danced
+Bigfoot Baker as though his life depended on speed and noise. Bottles
+shook and the air was fogged with smoke and dust. Suddenly, his belt
+slipping and letting his chaps fall around his ankles, he tripped and
+sat down heavily. Gasping for breath, he held out his hand and received
+a huge plug of tobacco, for Bigfoot had won a contest.
+
+Shouts of greeting were hurled at the newcomers and many questions were
+fired at them regarding "th' latest from th' Hills." Waffles made a rush
+for Hopalong, but fell over Big-foot's feet and all three were piled up
+in a heap. All were beaming with good nature, for they were as so many
+school boys playing truant. Prosaic cow-punching was relegated to the
+rear and they looked eagerly forward to their several missions. Frenchy
+told of the barb-wire fence war and of the new regulations of "Smith
+of Buffalo" regarding cow-punchers' guns, and from the caustic remarks
+explosively given it was plain to be seen what a wire fence could
+expect, should one be met with, and there were many imaginary Smiths put
+hors de combat.
+
+Kid Morris, after vainly trying to slip a blue-bottle fly inside of
+Hopalong's shirt, gave it up and slammed his hand on Hopalong's back
+instead, crying: "Well, I'll be doggoned if here ain't Hopalong! How's
+th' missus an' th' deacon an' all th' folks to hum? I hears yu an'
+Frenchy's reg'lar poker fiends!"
+
+"Oh, we plays onct in a while, but we don't want none of yore dust.
+Yu'll shore need it all afore th' Hills get through with yu," laughingly
+replied Hopalong.
+
+"Oh, yore shore kind! But I was a sort of reckonin' that we needs some
+more. Perfesser P. D. Q. Waffles is our poker man an' he shore can clean
+out anything I ever saw. Mebbe yu fellers feel reckless-like an' would
+like to make a pool," he cried, addressing the outfit of the Bar-20,
+"an' back yore boss of th' full house agin ourn?"
+
+Red turned slowly around and took a full minute in which to size the Kid
+up. Then he snorted and turned his back again.
+
+The Kid stared at him in outraged dignity. "Well, what say!" he softly
+murmured. Then he leaped forward and walloped Red on the back.
+"Hey, yore royal highness!" he shouted. "Yu-yu-yu-oh, hang it-yu! Yu
+slab-sided, ring-boned, saddle-galled shade of a coyote, do yu think I'm
+only meanderin' in th' misty vales of-of--"
+
+Suggestions intruded from various sources. "Hades?" offered Hopalong.
+"Cheyenne?" Murmured Johnny. "Misty mistiness of misty?" tentatively
+supplied Waffles.
+
+Red turned around again. "Better come up an' have somethin'," he
+sympathetically invited, wiping away an imaginary tear.
+
+"An' he's so young!" sobbed Frenchy.
+
+"An' so fair!" wailed Tex.
+
+"An' so ornery!" howled Lefty, throwing his arms around the discomfited
+youngster. Other arms went around him, and out of the sobbing mob could
+be heard earnest and heart-felt cussing, interspersed with imperative
+commands, which were gradually obeyed.
+
+The Kid straightened up his wearing apparel. "Come on, yu locoed--"
+
+"Angels?" Queried Charley Lane, interrupting him. "Sweet things?"
+breathed Hopalong in hopeful expectancy.
+
+"Oh, blast it!" yelled the Kid as he ran out into the street to escape
+the persecution.
+
+"Good Kid, all right," remarked Waffles. "He'll go around an' lick some
+Mexican an' come back sweet as honey."
+
+"Did somebody say poker?" Asked Bigfoot, digressing from the Kid.
+
+"Oh, yu fellows don't want no poker. Of course yu don't. Poker's mighty
+uncertain," replied Red.
+
+"Yah!" exclaimed Tex Le Blanc, pushing forward. "I'll just bet yu to
+a standstill that Waffles an' Salvation'll round up all th' festive
+simoleons yu can get together! An' I'll throw in Frenchy's hat as an
+inducement."
+
+"Well, if yore shore set on it make her a pool," replied Red, "an' th'
+winners divide with their outfit. Here's a starter," he added, tossing a
+buckskin bag on the table. "Come on, pile 'em up."
+
+The crowd divided as the players seated themselves at the table, the
+O-Bar-O crowd grouping themselves behind their representatives; the
+Bar-20 behind theirs. A deck of cards was brought and the game was on.
+
+Red, true to his nature, leaned back in a corner, where, hands on hips,
+he awaited any hostile demonstration on the part of the O-Bar-O; then,
+suddenly remembering, he looked half ashamed of his warlike position and
+became a peaceful citizen again. Buck leaned with his broad back against
+the bar, talking over his shoulder to the bartender, but watching
+Tenspot Davis, who was assiduously engaged in juggling a handful of
+Mexican dollars.
+
+Up by the door Bigfoot Baker, elated at winning the buck-and-wing
+contest, was endeavoring to learn a new step, while his late rival was
+drowning his defeat at Buck's elbow. Lefty Allen was softly singing a
+Mexican love song, humming when the words would not come. At the
+table could be heard low-spoken card terms and good-natured banter,
+interspersed with the clink of gold and silver and the soft pat-pat
+of the onlookers' feet unconsciously keeping time to Lefty's song.
+Notwithstanding the grim assertiveness of belts full of .45's and the
+peeping handles of long-barreled Colts, set off with picturesque chaps,
+sombreros and tinkling spurs, the scene was one of peaceful content and
+good-fellowship.
+
+"Ugh!" grunted Johnny, walking over to Red and informing that person
+that he, Red, was a worm-eaten prune and that for half a wink he,
+Johnny, would prove it. Red grabbed him by the seat of his corduroys
+and the collar of his shirt and helped him outside, where they strolled
+about, taking pot shots at whatever their fancy suggested.
+
+Down the street in a cloud of dust rumbled the Las Cruces-El Paso stage
+and the two punchers went up to meet it. Raw furrows showed in the
+woodwork, one mule was missing and the driver and guard wore fresh
+bandages. A tired tenderfoot leaped out with a sigh of relief and hunted
+for his baggage, which he found to be generously perforated. Swearing
+at the God-forsaken land where a man had to fight highwaymen and
+Indians inside of half a day he grumblingly lugged his valise toward a
+forbidding-looking shack which was called a hotel.
+
+The driver released his teams and then turned to Red. "Hullo, old hoss,
+how's th' gang?" he asked genially. "We've had a heck of a time this
+yere trip," he went on without waiting for Red to reply. "Five miles out
+of Las Cruces we stood off a son-of-a-gun that wanted th' dude's wealth.
+Then just this side of the San Andre foothills we runs into a bunch of
+young bucks who turned us off this yere way an' gave us a runnin' fight
+purty near all th' way. I'm a whole lot farther from Paso now than I
+was when I started, an seem as I lost a jack I'll be some time gittin'
+there. Yu don't happen to sabe a jack I can borrow, do yu?"
+
+"I don't know about no jack, but I'll rope yu a bronch," offered Red,
+winking at Johnny.
+
+"I'll pull her myself before I'll put dynamite in di' traces," replied
+the driver. "Yu fellers might amble back a ways with me--them buddin'
+warriors'll be layin' for me."
+
+"We shore will," responded Johnny eagerly. "There's nine of us now an'
+there'll be nine more an' a cook to-morrow, mebby."
+
+"Gosh, yu grows some," replied the guard. "Eighteen'll be a plenty for
+them glory hunters."
+
+"We won't be able to," contradicted Red, "for things are peculiar."
+
+At this moment the conversation was interrupted by the tenderfoot, who
+sported a new and cheap sombrero and also a belt and holster complete.
+
+"Will you gentlemen join me?" He asked, turning to Red and nodding at
+the saloon. "I am very dry and much averse to drinking alone."
+
+"Why, shore," responded Red heartily, wishing to put the stranger at
+ease.
+
+The game was running about even as they entered and Lefty Allen was
+singing "The Insult," the rich tenor softening the harshness of the
+surroundings.
+
+
+   I've swum th' Colorado where she's almost lost to view, I've braced
+        th' Jaro layouts in Cheyenne;
+
+   I've fought for muddy water with a howlin' bunch of Sioux, An'
+        swallowed hot tamales, an' cayenne.
+
+   I've rid a pitchin' broncho 'till th' sky was underneath, I've
+        tackled every desert in th' land;
+
+   I've sampled XXXX whiskey 'till I couldn't hardly see, An' dallied
+        with th' quicksands of the Grande.
+
+   I've argued with th' marshals of a half-a-dozen burgs, I've been
+        dragged free an' fancy by a cow;
+
+   I've had three years' campaignin' with th' fightin', bitin' Ninth,
+        An' never lost my temper 'till right now.
+
+   I've had the yaller fever an I've been shot full of holes, I've
+        grabbed an army mule plumb by its tail;
+
+   I've never been so snortin', really highfalutin' mad As when y'u up
+        an' hands me ginger ale!
+
+Hopalong laughed joyously at a remark made by Waffles and the stranger
+glanced quickly at him. His merry, boyish face, underlined by a
+jaw showing great firmness and set with an expression of aggressive
+self-reliance, impressed the stranger and he remarked to Red, who
+lounged lazily near him, that he was surprised to see such a face on so
+young a man and he asked who the player was.
+
+"Oh, his name's Hopalong Cassidy," answered Red. "He's di' cuss that
+raised that ruction down in Mexico last spring. Rode his cayuse in a
+saloon and played with the loungers and had to shoot one before he got
+out. When he did get out he had to fight a whole bunch of Mexicans an'
+even potted their marshal, who had di' drop on him. Then he returned and
+visited the marshal about a month later, took his gun away from him
+an' then cut th' cards to see if he was a prisoner or not. He's a shore
+funny cuss."
+
+The tenderfoot gasped his amazement. "Are you not fooling with me?" He
+asked.
+
+"Tell him yu came after that five hundred dollars reward and see,"
+answered Red goodnaturedly.
+
+"Holy smoke!" shouted Waffles as Hopalong won his sixth consecutive pot.
+"Did yu ever see such luck?" Frenchy grinned and some time later raked
+in his third. Salvation then staked his last cent against Hopalong's
+flush and dropped out.
+
+Tenspot flipped to Waffles the money he had been juggling and Lefty
+searched his clothes for wealth. Buck, still leaning against the bar,
+grinned and winked at Johnny, who was pouring hair-raising tales into
+the receptive ears of the stranger. Thereupon Johnny confided to his
+newly found acquaintance the facts about the game, nearly causing that
+person to explode with delight.
+
+Waffles pushed back his chair, stood up and stretched. At the finish
+of a yawn he grinned at his late adversary. "I'm all in, yu old
+son-of-a-gun. Yu shore can play draw. I'm goin' to try yu again some
+time. I was beat fair an' square an' I ain't got no kick comin', none
+whatever," he remarked, as he shook hands with Hopalong.
+
+"Oh, we're that gang from th' O-Bar-O," hummed the Kid as he sauntered
+in. One cheek was slightly swollen and his clothes shed dust at every
+step. "Who wins?" he inquired, not having heard Waffles.
+
+"They did, blast it!" exploded Bigfoot.
+
+One of the Kid's peculiarities was revealed in the unreasoning and
+hasty conclusions he arrived at. From no desire to imply unfairness,
+but rather because of his bitterness against failure of any kind and his
+loyalty to Waffles, came his next words:
+
+"Mebby they skinned yu."
+
+Like a flash Waffles sprang before him, his hand held up, palm out. "He
+don't mean nothin'--he's only a ignorant kid!" he cried.
+
+Buck smiled and wrested the Colt from Johnny's ever-ready hand. "Here's
+another," he said. Red laughed softly and rolled Johnny on the floor.
+"Yu jackass," he whispered, "don't yu know better'n to make a gun-play
+when we needs them all?"
+
+"What are we goin' to do?" Asked Tex, glancing at the bulging pockets of
+Hopalong's chaps.
+
+"We're goin' to punch cows again, that's what we're to do," answered
+Bigfoot dismally.
+
+"An' whose are we goin' to punch? We can't go back to the old man,"
+grumbled Tex.
+
+Salvation looked askance at Buck and then at the others. "Mebby," he
+began, "Mebby we kin git a job on th' Bar-20." Then turning to Buck
+again he bluntly asked, "Are yu short of punchers?"
+
+"Well, I might use some," answered the foreman, hesitating. "But
+ I ain't got only one cook, an'----"
+
+"We'll git yu th' cook all O.K.," interrupted Charley Lane vehemently.
+"Hi, yu cook!" he shouted, "amble in here an' git a rustle on!"
+
+There was no reply, and after waiting for a minute he and Waffles went
+into the rear room, from which there immediately issued great chunks
+of profanity and noise. They returned looking pugnacious and disgusted,
+with a wildly fighting man who was more full of liquor than was the
+bottle which he belligerently waved.
+
+"This here animated distillery what yu sees is our cook," said Waffles.
+"We eats his grub, nobody else. If he gits drunk that's our funeral; but
+he won't get drunk! If yu wants us to punch for yu say so an' we does;
+if yu don't, we don't."
+
+"Well," replied Buck thoughtfully, "mebby I can use yu." Then with a
+burst of recklessness he added, "Yes, if I lose my job! But yu might
+sober that Mexican up if yu let him fall in th' horse trough."
+
+As the procession wended its way on its mission of wet charity, carrying
+the cook in any manner at all, Frenchy waved his long lost sombrero
+at Buck, who stood in the door, and shouted, "Yu old son-of-a-gun, I'm
+proud to know yu!"
+
+Buck smiled and snapped his watch shut "Time to amble," he said.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI. Holding the Claim
+
+
+"Oh, we're that gang from th' O-Bar-O," hummed Waffles, sinking the
+branding-iron in the flank of a calf. The scene was one of great
+activity and hilarity. Several fires were burning near the huge corral
+and in them half a dozen irons were getting hot. Three calves were being
+held down for the brand of the "Bar-20" and two more were being dragged
+up on their sides by the ropes of the cowboys, the proud cow-ponies
+showing off their accomplishments at the expense of the calves'
+feelings. In the corral the dust arose in steady clouds as calf after
+calf was "cut out" by the ropers and dragged out to get "tagged." Angry
+cows fought valiantly for their terrorized offspring, but always to no
+avail, for the hated rope of some perspiring and dust-grimed rider sent
+them crashing to earth. Over the plain were herds of cattle and groups
+of madly riding cowboys, and two cook wagons were stalled a short
+distance from the corral. The round-up of the Bar-20 was taking place,
+and each of the two outfits tried to outdo the other and each individual
+strove for a prize. The man who cut out and dragged to the fire the most
+calves in three days could leave for the Black Hills at the expiration
+of that time, the rest to follow as soon as they could.
+
+In this contest Hopalong Cassidy led his nearest rival, Red Connors,
+both of whom were Bar-20 men, by twenty cut-outs, and there remained but
+half an hour more in which to compete. As Red disappeared into the sea
+of tossing horns Hopalong dashed out with a whoop.
+
+ "Hi, yu trellis-built rack of bones, come along there! Whoop!" he
+yelled, turning the prisoner over to the squad by the fire.
+
+"Chalk up this here insignificant wart of cross-eyed perversity: an' how
+many?" He called as he galloped back to the corral.
+
+"One ninety-eight," announced Buck, blowing the sand from the tally
+sheet. "That's shore goin' some," he remarked to himself.
+
+When the calf sprang up it was filled with terror, rage and pain, and
+charged at Billy from the rear as that pessimistic soul was leaning over
+and poking his finger at a somber horned-toad. "Wow!" he yelled as his
+feet took huge steps up in the air, each one strictly on its own course.
+"Woof!" he grunted in the hot sand as he arose on his hands and knees
+and spat alkali.
+
+"What's s'matter?" He asked dazedly of Johnny Nelson. "Ain't it funny!"
+he yelled sarcastically as he beheld Johnny holding his sides with
+laughter. "Ain't it funny!" he repeated belligerently. "Of course that
+four-laigged, knock-kneed, wobblin' son-of-a-Piute had to cut me out.
+They wasn't nobody in sight but Billy! Why didn't yu say he was comin'?
+Think I can see four ways to once? Why didn't--" At this point Red
+cantered up with a calf, and by a quick maneuver, drew the taut rope
+against the rear of Billy's knees, causing that unfortunate to sit down
+heavily. As he arose choking with broken-winded profanity Red dragged
+the animal to the fire, and Billy forgot his grievances in the press of
+labor.
+
+"How many, Buck?" Asked Red.
+
+"One-eighty."
+
+"How does she stand?"
+
+"Yore eighteen to th' bad," replied the foreman. "Th' son-of-a-gun!"
+marveled Red, riding off.
+
+Another whoop interrupted them, and Billy quit watching out of the
+corner eye for pugnacious calves as he prepared for Hopalong.
+
+"Hey, Buck, this here cuss was with a Barred-Horseshoe cow," he
+announced as he turned it over to the branding man. Buck made a tally in
+a separate column and released the animal. "Hullo, Red! Workin'?" Asked
+Hopalong of his rival.
+
+"Some, yu little cuss," answered Red with all the good nature in the
+world. Hopalong was his particular "side partner," and he could lose to
+him with the best of feelings.
+
+"Yu looks so nice an' cool, an' clean, I didn't know," responded
+Hopalong, eyeing a streak of sweat and dust which ran from Red's eyes to
+his chin and then on down his neck.
+
+"What yu been doin'? Plowin' with yore nose?" Returned Red, smiling
+blandly at his friend's appearance.
+
+"Yah!" snorted Hopalong, wheeling toward the corral. "Come on, yu
+pie-eatin' doodle-bug; I'll beat yu to th' gate!"
+
+The two ponies sent showers of sand all over Billy, who eyed them
+in pugnacious disgust. "Of all th' locoed imps that ever made life
+miserable fer a man, them's th' worst! Is there any piece of fool
+nonsense they hain't harnessed me with?" He beseeched of Buck. "Is there
+anything they hain't done to me? They hides my liquor; they stuffs th'
+sweat band of my hat with rope; they ties up my pants; they puts water
+in. My boots an' toads in my bunk--ain't they never goin' to get sane?"
+
+"Oh, they're only kids--they can't help it," offered Buck. "Didn't they
+hobble my cayuse when I was on him an' near bust my neck?"
+
+Hopalong interrupted the conversation by driving up another calf, and
+Buck, glancing at his watch, declared the contest at an end.
+
+"Yu wins," he remarked to the newcomer. "An' now yu get scarce or Billy
+will shore straddle yore nerves. He said as how he was goin' to get
+square on yu to-night."
+
+"I didn't, neither, Hoppy!" earnestly contradicted Billy, who bad
+visions of a night spent in torment as a reprisal for such a threat.
+"Honest I didn't, did I, Johnny?" He asked appealingly.
+
+"Yu shore did," lied Johnny, winking at Red, who had just ridden up.
+
+"I don't know what yore talkin' about, but yu shore did," replied Red.
+
+"If yu did," grinned Hopalong, "I'll shore make yu hard to find. Come
+on, fellows," he said; "grub's ready. Where's Frenchy?"
+
+"Over chewin' th' rag with Waffles about his hat--he's lost it again,"
+answered Red. "He needs a guardian fer that bonnet. Th' Kid an'
+Salvation has jammed it in th' corral fence an' Waffles has to stand fer
+it."
+
+"Let's put it in th' grub wagon an see him cuss cookie," suggested
+Hopalong.
+
+"Shore," indorsed Johnny; Cookie'll feed him bum grub for a week to get
+square.
+
+Hopalong and Johnny ambled over to the corral and after some trouble
+located the missing sombrero, which they carried to the grub wagon and
+hid in the flour barrel. Then they went over by the excited owner and
+dropped a few remarks about how strange the cook was acting and how he
+was watching Frenchy.
+
+Frenchy jumped at the bait and tore over to the wagon, where he and the
+cook spent some time in mutual recrimination. Hopalong nosed around and
+finally dug up the hat, white as new-fallen snow.
+
+"Here's a hat--found it in th' dough barrel," he announced, handing it
+over to Frenchy, who received it in open-mouthed stupefaction.
+
+"Yu pie-makin' pirate! Yu didn't know where my lid was, did yu! Yu
+cross-eyed lump of hypocrisy!" yelled Frenchy, dusting off the flour
+with one full-armed swing on the cook's face, driving it into that
+unfortunate's nose and eyes and mouth. "Yu white-washed Chink, yu--rub
+yore face with water an' yu've got pancakes."
+
+"Hey! What you doin'!" yelled the cook, kicking the spot where he had
+last seen Frenchy. "Don't yu know better'n that!"
+
+"Yu live close to yoreself or I'll throw yu so high th' sun'll duck,"
+replied Frenchy, a smile illuminating his face.
+
+"Hey, cookie," remarked Hopalong confidentially, "I know who put up this
+joke on yu. Yu ask Billy who hid th' hat," suggested the tease. "Here he
+comes now--see how queer he looks."
+
+"Th' mournful Piute," ejaculated the cook. "I'll shore make him wish
+he'd kept on his own trail. I'll flavor his slush [coffee] with year-old
+dish-rags!"
+
+At this juncture Billy ambled up, keeping his weather eye peeled for
+trouble. "Who's a dish-rag?" He queried. The cook mumbled something
+about crazy hens not knowing when to quit cackling and climbed up in his
+wagon. And that night Billy swore off drinking coffee.
+
+When the dawn of the next day broke, Hopalong was riding toward the
+Black Hills, leaving Billy to untie himself as best he might.
+
+The trip was uneventful and several weeks later he entered Red Dog, a
+rambling shanty town, one of those western mushrooms that sprang up in a
+night. He took up his stand at the Miner's Rest, and finally secured
+six claims at the cost of nine hundred hard-earned dollars, a fund
+subscribed by the outfits, as it was to be a partnership affair.
+
+He rode out to a staked-off piece of hillside and surveyed his purchase,
+which consisted of a patch of ground, six holes, six piles of dirt and
+a log hut. The holes showed that the claims bad been tried and found
+wanting.
+
+He dumped his pack of tools and provisions, which he had bought on the
+way up, and lugged them into the cabin. After satisfying his curiosity
+he went outside and sat down for a smoke, figuring up in his mind how
+much gold he could carry on a horse. Then, as he realized that he could
+get a pack mule to carry the surplus, he became aware of a strange
+presence near at hand and looked up into the muzzle of a Sharp's rifle.
+He grasped the situation in a flash and calmly blew several heavy smoke
+rings around the frowning barrel.
+
+"Well?" He asked slowly.
+
+"Nice day, stranger," replied the man with the rifle, "but don't yu
+reckon yu've made a mistake?"
+
+Hopalong glanced at the number burned on a near-by stake and carelessly
+blew another smoke ring. He was waiting for the gun to waver.
+
+"No, I reckons not," he answered. "Why?"
+
+"Well, I'll jest tell yu since yu asks. This yere claim's mine an' I'm
+a reg'lar terror, I am. That's why; an' seein' as it is, yu better amble
+some."
+
+Hopalong glanced down the street and saw an interested group watching
+him, which only added to his rage for being in such a position. Then
+he started to say something, faltered and stared with horror at a point
+several feet behind his opponent. The "terror" sprang to one side in
+response to Hop-along's expression, as if fearing that a snake or some
+such danger threatened him. As he alighted in his new position he fell
+forward and Hopalong slid a smoking Colt in its holster.
+
+Several men left the distant group and ran toward the claim. Hopalong
+reached his arm inside the door and brought forth his rifle, with which
+he covered their advance.
+
+"Anything yu want?" he shouted savagely.
+
+The men stopped and two of them started to sidle in front of two others,
+but Hopalong was not there for the purpose of permitting a move that
+would screen any gun play and he stopped the game with a warning shout.
+Then the two held up their hands and advanced.
+
+"We wants to git Dan," called out one of them, nodding at the prostrate
+figure.
+
+"Come ahead," replied Hopalong, substituting a Colt for the rifle.
+
+
+They carried their badly wounded and insensible burden back to those
+whom they had left, and several curses were hurled at the cowboy, who
+only smiled grimly and entered the hut to place things ready for a
+siege, should one come. He had one hundred rounds of ammunition and
+provisions enough for two weeks, with the assurance of reinforcements
+long before that time would expire. He cut several rough loopholes and
+laid out his weapons for quick handling. He knew that he could stop any
+advance during the day and planned only for night attacks. How long
+he could go without sleep did not bother him, because he gave it no
+thought, as he was accustomed to short naps and could awaken at will or
+at the slightest sound.
+
+As dusk merged into dark he crept forth and collected several handfuls
+of dry twigs, which he scattered around the hut, as the cracking of
+these would warn him of an approach. Then he went in and went to sleep.
+
+He awoke at daylight after a good night's rest, and feasted on canned
+beans and peaches. Then he tossed the cans out of the door and shoved
+his hat out. Receiving no response he walked out and surveyed the town
+at his feet. A sheepish grin spread over his face as he realized that
+there was no danger. Several red-shirted men passed by him on their way
+to town, and one, a grizzled veteran of many gold camps, stopped and
+sauntered up to him.
+
+"Mornin'," said Hopalong.
+
+"Mornin'," replied the stranger. "I thought I'd drop in an' say that I
+saw that gun-play of yourn yesterday. Yu ain't got no reason to look fer
+a rush. This camp is half white men an' half bullies, an' th' white men
+won't stand fer no play like that. Them fellers that jest passed are
+neighbors of yourn, an' they won't lay abed if yu needs them. But yu
+wants to look out fer th' joints in th' town. Guess this business is out
+of yore line," he finished as he sized Hopalong up.
+
+"She shore is, but I'm here to stay. Got tired of punchin' an' reckoned
+I'd get rich." Here he smiled and glanced at the hole. "How're yu makin'
+out?" He asked.
+
+"'Bout five dollars a day apiece, but that ain't nothin' when grub's so
+high. Got reckless th' other day an' had a egg at fifty cents."
+
+Hopalong whistled and glanced at the empty cans at his feet. "Any
+marshal in this burg?"
+
+"Yep. But he's one of th' gang. No good, an' drunk half th' time an'
+half drunk th' rest. Better come down an' have something," invited the
+miner.
+
+"I'd shore like to, but I can't let no gang get in that door," replied
+the puncher.
+
+"Oh, that's all right; I'll call my pardner down to keep house till yu
+gits back. He can hold her all right. Hey, Jake!" he called to a man who
+was some hundred paces distant; "Come down here an' keep house till we
+gits back, will yu?"
+
+The man lumbered down to them and took possession as Hopalong and his
+newly found friend started for the town.
+
+They entered the "Miner's Rest" and Hopalong fixed the room in his mind
+with one swift glance. Three men--and they looked like the crowd he had
+stopped before--were playing poker at a table near the window. Hopalong
+leaned with his back to the bar and talked, with the players always in
+sight.
+
+Soon the door opened and a bewhiskered, heavy-set man tramped in, and
+walking up to Hopalong, looked him over.
+
+"Huh," he sneered, "Yu are th' gent with th' festive guns that plugged
+Dan, ain't yu?"
+
+Hopalong looked at him in the eyes and quietly replied:
+
+"An' who th' deuce are yu?"
+
+The stranger's eyes blazed and his face wrinkled with rage as he
+aggressively shoved his jaw close to Hopalong's face.
+
+"Yu runt, I'm a better man than yu even if yu do wear hair pants,"
+referring to Hopalong's chaps. "Yu cow-wrastlers make me tired, an' I'm
+goin' to show yu that this town is too good for you. Yu can say it right
+now that yu are a ornery, game-leg--"
+
+Hopalong smashed his insulter squarely between the eyes with all the
+power of his sinewy body behind the blow, knocking him in a heap under
+the table. Then he quickly glanced at the card players and saw a hostile
+movement. His gun was out in a flash and he covered the trio as he
+walked up to them. Never in all his life had he felt such a desire to
+kill. His eyes were diamond points of accumulated fury, and those whom
+he faced quailed before him.
+
+"Yu scum! Draw, please draw! Pull yore guns an' gimme my chance! Three
+to one, an' I'll lay my guns here," he said, placing them on the bar and
+removing his hands. "'Nearer My God to Thee' is purty appropriate fer
+yu just now! Yu seem to be a-scared of yore own guns. Git down on yore
+dirty knees an' say good an' loud that yu eats dirt! Shout out that
+yu are too currish to live with decent men," he said, even-toned and
+distinct, his voice vibrant with passion as he took up his Colts. "Get
+down!" he repeated, shoving the weapons forward and pulling back the
+hammers.
+
+The trio glanced at each other, and all three dropped to their knees and
+repeated in venomous hatred the words Hopalong said for them.
+
+"Now git! An' if I sees yu when I leaves I'll send yu after yore friend.
+I'll shoot on sight now. Git!" He escorted them to the door and kicked
+the last one out.
+
+His miner friend still leaned against the bar and looked his approval.
+
+"Well done, youngster! But yu wants to look out--that man," pointing to
+the now groping victim of Hopalong's blow, "is th' marshal of this town.
+He or his pals will get yu if yu don't watch th' corners."
+
+Hopalong walked over to the marshal, jerked him to his feet and slammed
+him against the bar. Then he tore the cheap badge from its place and
+threw it on the floor. Reaching down, he drew the marshal's revolver
+from its holster and shoved it in its owner's hand.
+
+"Yore th' marshal of this place an' it's too good for me, but yore gain'
+to pick up that tin lie," pointing at the badge, "an' yore goin' to do
+it right now. Then yore gain' to get kicked out of that door, an' if
+yu stops runnin' while I can see yu I'll fill yu so full of holes yu'll
+catch cold. Yore a sumptious marshal, yu are! Yore th' snortingest ki-yi
+that ever stuck its tail atween its laigs, yu are. Yu pop-eyed wall
+flower, yu wants to peep to yoreself or some papoose'll slide yu over
+th' Divide so fast yu won't have time to grease yore pants. Pick up that
+license-tag an' let me see you perculate so lively that yore back'll
+look like a ten-cent piece in five seconds. Flit!"
+
+The marshal, dazed and bewildered, stooped and fumbled for the badge.
+Then he stood up and glanced at the gun in his hand and at the eager man
+before him. He slid the weapon in his belt and drew his hand across his
+fast-closing eyes. Cursing streaks of profanity, he staggered to the
+door and landed in a heap in the street from the force of Hopalong's
+kick. Struggling to his feet, he ran unsteadily down the block and
+disappeared around a corner.
+
+The bartender, cool and unperturbed, pushed out three glasses on his
+treat: "I've seen yu afore, up in Cheyenne--'member? How's yore friend
+Red?" He asked as he filled the glasses with the best the house
+afforded.
+
+"Well, shore 'nuff! Glad to see yu, Jimmy! What yu doin' away off here?"
+Asked Hopalong, beginning to feel at home.
+
+"Oh, jest filterin' round like. I'm awful glad to see yu--this yere wart
+of a town needs siftin' out. It was only last week I was wishin' one of
+yore bunch 'ud show up--that ornament yu jest buffaloed shore raised th'
+devil in here, an' I wished I had somebody to prospect his anatomy for a
+lead mine. But he's got a tough gang circulating with him. Ever hear of
+Dutch Shannon or Blinky Neary? They's with him."
+
+"Dutch Shannon? Nope," he replied.
+
+"Bad eggs, an' not a-carin' how they gits square. Th' feller yu' salted
+yesterday was a bosom friend of th' marshal's, an' he passed in his
+chips last night."
+
+"So?"
+
+"Yep. Bought a bottle of ready-made nerve an' went to his own funeral.
+Aristotle Smith was lookin' fer him up in Cheyenne last year. Aristotle
+said he'd give a century fer five minutes' palaver with him, but he
+shied th' town an' didn't come back. Yu know Aristotle, don't yu? He's
+th' geezer that made fame up to Poison Knob three years ago. He used to
+go to town ridin' astride a log on th' lumber flume. Made four miles in
+six minutes with th' promise of a ruction when he stopped. Once when
+he was loaded he tried to ride back th' same way he came, an' th'
+first thing he knowed he was three miles farther from his supper an'
+a-slippin' down that valley like he wanted to go somewhere. He swum out
+at Potter's Dam an' it took him a day to walk back. But he didn't make
+that play again, because he was frequently sober, an' when he wasn't
+he'd only stand off an' swear at th' slide."
+
+"That's Aristotle, all hunk. He's th' chap that used to play checkers
+with Deacon Rawlins. They used empty an' loaded shells for men, an' when
+they got a king they'd lay one on its side. Sometimes they'd jar th'
+board an' they'd all be kings an' then they'd have a cussin' match,"
+replied Hopalong, once more restored to good humor.
+
+"Why," responded Jimmy, "he counted his wealth over twice by mistake an'
+shore raised a howl when he went to blow it--thought he's been robbed,
+an' laid behind th' houses fer a week lookin' fer th' feller that done
+it."
+
+"I've heard of that cuss--he shore was th' limit. What become of him?"
+Asked the miner.
+
+"He ambled up to Laramie an' stuck his head in th' window of that joint
+by th' plaza an' hollered 'Fire,' an' they did. He was shore a good
+feller, all th' same," answered the bartender. Hopalong laughed and
+started for the door. Turning around he looked at his miner friend and
+asked: "Comin' along? I'm goin' back now."
+
+"Nope. Reckon I'll hit th' tiger a whirl. I'll stop in when I passes."
+
+"All right. So long," replied Hopalong, slipping out of the door and
+watching for trouble. There was no opposition shown him, and he arrived
+at his claim to find Jake in a heated argument with another of the gang.
+
+"Here he comes now," he said as Hopalong walked up. "Tell him what yu
+said to me."
+
+"I said yu made a mistake," said the other, turning to the cowboy in a
+half apologetic manner.
+
+"An' what else?" Insisted Jake.
+
+"Why, ain't that all?" Asked the claim-jumper's friend in feigned
+surprise, wishing that he had kept quiet.
+
+"Well I reckons it is if yu can't back up yore words," responded Jake in
+open contempt.
+
+Hopalong grabbed the intruder by the collar of his shirt and hauled him
+off the claim. "Yu keep off this, understand? I just kicked yore marshal
+out in th' street, an' I'll pay yu th' next call. If yu rambles in range
+of my guns yu'll shore get in th' way of a slug. Yu an' yore gang wants
+to browse on th' far side of th' range or yu'll miss a sunrise some
+mornin'. Scoot!"
+
+Hopalong turned to his companion and smiled. "What'd he say?" He asked
+genially.
+
+"Oh, he jest shot off his mouth a little. They's all no good. I've
+collided with lots of them all over this country. They can't face a good
+man an' keep their nerve. What'd yu say to th' marshal?"
+
+"I told him what he was an' threw him outen th' street," replied
+Hopalong. "In about two weeks we'll have a new marshal an' he'll shore
+be a dandy."
+
+"Yes? Why don't yu take th' job yoreself? We're with yu."
+
+"Better man comin'. Ever hear of Buck Peters or Red Connors of th'
+Bar-20, Texas?"
+
+"Buck Peters? Seems to me I have. Did he punch fer th' Tin-Cup up in
+Montana, 'bout twenty years back?"
+
+"Shore! Him and Frenchy McAllister punched all over that country an'
+they used to paint Cheyenne, too," replied Hopalong, eagerly.
+
+"I knows him, then. I used to know Frenchy, too. Are they comin' up
+here?"
+
+"Yes," responded Hopalong, struggling with another can while waiting for
+the fire to catch up. "Better have some grub with me--don't like to eat
+alone," invited the cowboy, the reaction of his late rage swinging him
+to the other extreme.
+
+When their tobacco had got well started at the close of the meal and
+content had taken possession of them Hopalong laughed quietly and
+finally spoke:
+
+"Did yu ever know Aristotle Smith when yu was up in Montana?"
+
+"Did I! Well, me an' Aristotle prospected all through that country till
+he got so locoed I had to watch him fer fear he'd blow us both up. He
+greased th' fryin' pan with dynamite one night, an' we shore had to eat
+jerked meat an' canned stuff all th' rest of that trip. What made yu
+ask? Is he comin' up too?"
+
+"No, I reckons not. Jimmy, th' bartender, said that he cashed in up
+at Laramie. Wasn't he th' cuss that built that boat out there on th'
+Arizona desert because he was scared that a flood might come? Th' sun
+shore warped that punt till it wasn't even good for a hencoop."
+
+"Nope. That was Sister--Annie Tompkins. He was purty near as bad as
+Aristotle, though. He roped a puma up on th' Sacramentos, an' didn't
+punch no more fer three weeks. Well, here comes my pardner an' I reckons
+I'll amble right along. If yu needs any referee or a side pardner in any
+ruction yu has only got to warble up my way. So long."
+
+The next ten days passed quietly, and on the afternoon of the eleventh
+Hopalong's miner friend paid him a visit.
+
+"Jake recommends yore peaches," he laughed as he shook Hopalong's hand.
+"He says yu boosted another of that crowd. That bein' so I thought I
+would drop in an' say that they're comin' after yu to-night, shore. Just
+heard of it from yore friend Jimmy. Yu can count on us when th' rush
+comes. But why didn't yu say yu was a pard of Buck Peters'? Me an' him
+used to shoot up Laramie together. From what yore friend James says, yu
+can handle this gang by yore lonesome, but if yu needs any encouragement
+yu make some sign an' we'll help th' event along some. They's eight of
+us that'll be waitin' up to get th' returns an' we're shore goin' to be
+in range."
+
+"Gee, it's nice to run across a friend of Buck's! Ain't he a
+son-of-a-gun?" Asked Hopalong, delighted at the news. Then, without
+waiting for a reply, he went on: "Yore shore square, all right, an' I
+hates to refuse yore offer, but I got eighteen friends comin' up an'
+they ought to get here by tomorrow. Yu tell Jimmy to head them this way
+when they shows up an' I'll have th' claim for them. There ain't no
+use of yu fellers gettin' mixed up in this. Th' bunch that's comin' can
+clean out any gang this side of sunup, an' I expects they'll shore be
+anxious to begin when they finds me eatin' peaches an' wastin' my time
+shootin' bums. Yu pass th' word along to yore friends, an' tell them to
+lay low an' see th' Arory Boerallis hit this town with its tail up. Tell
+Jimmy to do it up good when he speaks about me holdin' th' claim--I likes
+to see Buck an' Red fight when they're good an' mad."
+
+The miner laughed and slapped Hopalong on the shoulder. "Yore all right,
+youngster! Yore just like Buck was at yore age. Say now, I reckons he
+wasn't a reg'lar terror on wheels! Why, I've seen him do more foolish
+things than any man I knows of, an' I calculate that if Buck pals
+with yu there ain't no water in yore sand. My name's Tom Halloway," he
+suggested.
+
+"An' mine's Hopalong Cassidy," was the reply. "I've heard Buck speak of
+yu."
+
+"Has yu? Well, don't it beat all how little this world is? Somebody
+allus turnin' up that knows somebody yu knows. I'll just amble along,
+Mr. Cassidy, an' don't yu be none bashful about callin' if yu needs me.
+Any pal of Buck's is my friend. Well, so long," said the visitor as he
+strode off. Then he stopped and turned around. "Hey, mister!" he
+called. "They are goin' to roll a fire barrel down agin yu from behind,"
+indicating by an outstretched arm the point from where it would start.
+"If it burns yu out I'm goin' to take a band from up there," pointing to
+a cluster of rocks well to the rear of where the crowd would work from,
+"an' I don't care whether yu likes it or not," he added to himself.
+
+Hopalong scratched his head and then laughed. Taking up a pick and
+shovel, he went out behind the cabin and dug a trench parallel with and
+about twenty paces away from the rear wall. Heaping the excavated dirt
+up on the near side of the cut, he stepped back and surveyed his labor
+with open satisfaction. "Roll yore fire barrel an' be dogged," he
+muttered. "Mebby she won't make a bully light for pot shots, though," he
+added, grinning at the execution he would do.
+
+Taking up his tools, he went up to the place from where the gang would
+roll the barrel, and made half a dozen mounds of twigs, being careful to
+make them very flimsy. Then he covered them with earth and packed
+them gently. The mounds looked very tempting from the view-point of a
+marksman in search of earth-works, and appeared capable of stopping any
+rifle ball that could be fired against them. Hopalong looked them over
+critically and stepped back.
+
+"I'd like to see th' look on th' face of th' son-of-a-gun that uses them
+for cover--won't he be surprised" and he grinned gleefully as he pictured
+his shots boring through them. Then he placed in the center of each a
+chip or a pebble or something that he thought would show up well in the
+firelight.
+
+Returning to the cabin, he banked it up well with dirt and gravel,
+and tossed a few shovelfuls up on the roof as a safety valve to his
+exuberance. When he entered the door he had another idea, and fell to
+work scooping out a shallow cellar, deep enough to shelter him when
+lying at full length. Then he stuck his head out of the window and
+grinned at the false covers with their prominent bull's-eyes.
+
+"When that prize-winnin' gang of ossified idiots runs up agin' these
+fortifications they shore will be disgusted. I'll bet four dollars an'
+seven cents they'll think their medicine-man's no good. I hopes that
+puff-eyed marshal will pick out that hump with th' chip on it," and he
+hugged himself in anticipation.
+
+He then cut down a sapling and fastened it to the roof and on it he
+tied his neckerchief, which fluttered valiantly and with defiance in
+the light breeze. "I shore hopes they appreciates that," he remarked
+whimsically, as he went inside the hut and closed the door.
+
+The early part of the evening passed in peace, and Hopalong, tired of
+watching in vain, wished for action. Midnight came, and it was not until
+half an hour before dawn that he was attacked. Then a noise sent him to
+a loophole, where he fired two shots at skulking figures some distance
+off. A fusillade of bullets replied; one of them ripped through the door
+at a weak spot and drilled a hole in a can of the everlasting peaches.
+Hopalong set the can in the frying pan and then flitted from loophole to
+loophole, shooting quick and straight. Several curses told him that he
+had not missed, and he scooped up a finger of peach juice. Shots thudded
+into the walls of his fort in an unceasing stream, and, as it grew
+lighter, several whizzed through the loopholes. He kept close to the
+earth and waited for the rush, and when it came sent it back, minus two
+of its members.
+
+As he reloaded his Colts a bullet passed through his shirt sleeve and he
+promptly nailed the marksman. He looked out of a crack in the rear wall
+and saw the top of an adjoining hill crowned with spectators, all of
+whom were armed. Some time later he repulsed another attack and heard a
+faint cheer from his friends on the hill. Then he saw a barrel, blazing
+from end to end, roll out from the place he had so carefully covered
+with mounds. It gathered speed and bounded over the rough ground,
+flashed between two rocks and leaped into the trench, where it crackled
+and roared in vain.
+
+"Now," said Hopalong, blazing at the mounds as fast as he could fire his
+rifle, "we'll just see what yu thinks of yore nice little covers."
+
+Yells of consternation and pain rang out in a swelling chorus, and legs
+and arms jerked and flopped, one man, in his astonishment at the shot
+that tore open his cheek, sitting up in plain sight of the marksman.
+Roars of rage floated up from the main body of the besiegers, and the
+discomfited remnant of barrel-rollers broke for real cover.
+
+Then he stopped another rush from the front, made upon the supposition
+that he was thinking only of the second detachment. A hearty cheer arose
+from Tom Halloway and his friends, ensconced in their rocky position,
+and it was taken up by those on the hill, who danced and yelled their
+delight at the battle, to them more humorous than otherwise.
+
+This recognition of his prowess from men of the caliber of his audience
+made him feel good, and he grinned: "Gee, I'll bet Halloway an' his
+friends is shore itchin' to get in this," he murmured, firing at a head
+that was shown for an instant. "Wonder what Red'll say when Jimmy tells
+him--bet he'll plow dust like a cyclone," and Hopalong laughed, picturing
+to himself the satiation of Red's anger. "Old red-headed son-of-a-gun,"
+murmured the cowboy affectionately, "he shore can fight."
+
+As he squinted over the sights of his rifle his eye caught sight of a
+moving body of men as they cantered over the flats about two miles away.
+In his eagerness he forgot to shoot and carefully counted them. "Nine,"
+he grumbled. "Wonder what's th' matter?" Fearing that they were not
+his friends. Then a second body numbering eight cantered into sight and
+followed the first.
+
+"Whoop! There's th' Red-head!" he shouted, dancing in his joy. "Now,"
+he shouted at the peach can joyously, "yu wait about thirty minutes an'
+yu'll shore reckon Hades has busted loose!"
+
+He grabbed up his Colts, which he kept loaded for repelling rushes, and
+recklessly emptied them into the bushes and between the rocks and trees,
+searching every likely place for a human target. Then he slipped his
+rifle in a loophole and waited for good shots, having worked off the
+dangerous pressure of his exuberance.
+
+Soon he heard a yell from the direction of the "Miner's Rest," and fell
+to jamming cartridges into his revolvers so that he could sally out and
+join in the fray by the side of Red.
+
+The thunder of madly pounding hoofs rolled up the trail, and soon a
+horse and rider shot around the corner and headed for the copse. Three
+more raced close behind and then a bunch of six, followed by the rest,
+spread out and searched for trouble.
+
+Red, a Colt in each hand and hatless, stood up in his stirrups and
+sent shot after shot into the fleeing mob, which he could not follow on
+account of the nature of the ground. Buck wheeled and dashed down the
+trail again with Red a close second, the others packed in a solid mass
+and after them. At the first level stretch the newcomers swept down
+and hit their enemies, going through them like a knife through cheese.
+Hopalong danced up and down with rage when he could not find his horse,
+and had to stand and yell, a spectator.
+
+The fight drifted in among the buildings, where it became a series of
+isolated duels, and soon Hopalong saw panic-stricken horses carrying
+their riders out of the other side of the town. Then he went gunning for
+the man who had rustled his horse. He was unsuccessful and returned to
+his peaches.
+
+Soon the riders came up, and when they saw Hopalong shove a peach into
+his powder-grimed mouth they yelled their delight.
+
+"Yu old maverick! Eatin' peaches like yu was afraid we'd git some!"
+shouted Red indignantly, leaping down and running up to his pal as
+though to thrash him.
+
+Hopalong grinned pleasantly and fired a peach against Red's eye. "I
+was savin' that one for yu, Reddie," he remarked, as he avoided Buck's
+playful kick. "Yu fellers git to work an' dig up some wealth--I'm
+hungry." Then he turned to Buck: "Yore th' marshal of this town, an' any
+son-of-a-gun what don't like it had better write. Oh, yes, here comes
+Tom Halloway--'member him?"
+
+Buck turned and faced the miner and his hand went out with a jerk.
+
+"Well, I'll be locoed if I didn't punch with yu on th' Tin-Cup!" he
+said.
+
+"Yu shore did an' yu was purty devilish, but that there Cassidy of yourn
+beats anything I ever seen."
+
+"He's a good kid," replied Buck, glancing to where Red and Hopalong were
+quarreling as to who had eaten the most pie in a contest held some years
+before.
+
+Johnny, nosing around, came upon the perforated and partially scattered
+piles of earth and twigs, and vented his disgust of them by kicking them
+to pieces. "Hey! Hoppy! Oh, Hoppy!" he called, "what are these things?"
+
+Hopalong jammed Red's hat over that person's eyes and replied: "Oh,
+them's some loaded dice I fixed for them."
+
+"Yu son-of-a-gun!" sputtered Red, as he wrestled with his friend in the
+exuberance of his pride. "Yu son-of-a-gun! Yu shore ought to be ashamed
+to treat 'em that way!"
+
+"Shore," replied Hopalong. "But I ain't!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. The Hospitality of Travennes
+
+
+Mr. Buck Peters rode into Alkaline one bright September morning and
+sought refreshment at the Emporium. Mr. Peters had just finished some
+business for his employer and felt the satisfaction that comes with
+the knowledge of work well done. He expected to remain in Alkaline
+for several days, where he was to be joined by two of his friends and
+punchers, Mr. Hopalong Cassidy and Mr. Red Connors, both of whom were
+at Cactus Springs, seventy miles to the east. Mr. Cassidy and his friend
+had just finished a nocturnal tour of Santa Fe and felt somewhat peevish
+and dull in consequence, not to mention the sadness occasioned by
+the expenditure of the greater part of their combined capital on such
+foolishness as faro, roulette and wet-goods.
+
+Mr. Peters and his friends had sought wealth in the Black Hills, where
+they had enthusiastically disfigured the earth in the fond expectation
+of uncovering vast stores of virgin gold. Their hopes were of an
+optimistic brand and had existed until the last canister of cornmeal
+flour had been emptied by Mr. Cassidy's burro, which waited not upon
+it's master's pleasure nor upon the ethics of the case. When Mr. Cassidy
+had returned from exercising the animal and himself over two miles of
+rocky hillside in the vain endeavor to give it his opinion of burros and
+sundry chastisements, he was requested, as owner of the beast, to
+give his counsel as to the best way of securing eighteen breakfasts.
+Remembering that the animal was headed north when he last saw it and
+that it was too old to eat, anyway, he suggested a plan which had
+worked successfully at other times for other ends, namely, poker.
+Mr. McAllister, an expert at the great American game, volunteered his
+service in accordance with the spirit of the occasion and, half an hour
+later, he and Mr. Cassidy drifted into Pell's poker parlors, which
+were located in the rear of a Chinese laundry, where they gathered unto
+themselves the wherewithal for the required breakfasts. An hour spent
+in the card room of the "Hurrah" convinced its proprietor that they had
+wasted their talents for the past six weeks in digging for gold.
+The proof of this permitted the departure of the outfits with their
+customary elan.
+
+At Santa Fe the various individuals had gone their respective ways, to
+reassemble at the ranch in the near future, and for several days they
+had been drifting south in groups of twos and threes and, like chaff
+upon a stream, had eddied into Alkaline, where Mr. Peters had found
+them arduously engaged in postponing the final journey. After he had
+gladdened their hearts and soothed their throats by making several pithy
+remarks to the bartender, with whom he established their credit, he
+cautioned them against letting any one harm them and, smiling at the
+humor of his warning, left abruptly.
+
+Cactus Springs was burdened with a zealous and initiative organization
+known as vigilantes, whose duty it was to extend the courtesies of the
+land to cattle thieves and the like. This organization boasted of the
+name of Travennes' Terrors and of a muster roll of twenty. There was
+also a boast that no one had ever escaped them which, if true, was in
+many cases unfortunate. Mr. Slim Travennes, with whom Mr. Cassidy had
+participated in an extemporaneous exchange of Colt's courtesies in
+Santa Fe the year before, was the head of the organization and was also
+chairman of the committee on arrivals, and the two gentlemen of the
+Bar-20 had not been in town an hour before he knew of it.
+
+Being anxious to show the strangers every attention and having a keen
+recollection of the brand of gun-play commanded by Mr. Cassidy, he
+planned a smoother method of procedure and one calculated to permit him
+to enjoy the pleasures of a good old age. Mr. Travennes knew that horse
+thieves were regarded as social enemies, that the necessary proof of
+their guilt was the finding of stolen animals in their possession, that
+death was the penalty and that every man, whether directly concerned or
+not, regarded, himself as judge, jury and executioner.
+
+He had several acquaintances who were bound to him by his knowledge of
+crimes they had committed and would could not refuse his slightest wish.
+Even if they had been free agents they were not above causing the death
+of an innocent man. Mr. Travennes, feeling very self-satisfied at his
+cleverness, arranged to have the proof placed where it would do the most
+harm and intended to take care of the rest by himself.
+
+Mr. Connors, feeling much refreshed and very hungry, arose at daylight
+the next morning, and dressing quickly, started off to feed and water
+the horses. After having several tilts with the landlord about the
+bucket he took his departure toward the corral at the rear. Peering
+through the gate, he could hardly believe his eyes. He climbed over it
+and inspected the animals at close range, and found that those which he
+and his friend had ridden for the last two months were not to be
+seen, but in their places were two better animals, which concerned him
+greatly. Being fair and square himself, he could not understand the
+change and sought enlightenment of his more imaginative and suspicious
+friend.
+
+"Hey, Hopalong!" he called, "come out here an' see what th' blazes has
+happened!"
+
+Mr. Cassidy stuck his auburn head out of the wounded shutter and
+complacently surveyed his companion. Then he saw the horses and looked
+hard.
+
+"Quit yore foolin', yu old cuss," he remarked pleasantly, as he groped
+around behind him with his feet, searching for his boots. "Anybody would
+think yu was a little boy with yore fool jokes. Ain't yu ever goin' to
+grow up?"
+
+"They've got our bronch," replied Mr. Connors in an injured tone.
+"Honest, I ain't kiddin' yu," he added for the sake of peace.
+
+"Who has?" Came from the window, followed immediately by, "Yu've got my
+boots!"
+
+"I ain't--they're under th' bunk," contradicted and explained Mr.
+Connors. Then, turning to the matter in his mind he replied, "I don't
+know who's got them. If I did do yu think I'd be holdin' hands with
+myself?"
+
+"Nobody'd accuse yu of anything like that," came from the window,
+accompanied by an overdone snicker.
+
+Mr. Connors flushed under his accumulated tan as he remembered the
+varied pleasures of Santa Fe, and he regarded the bronchos in anything
+but a pleasant state of mind.
+
+Mr. Cassidy slid through the window and approached his friend, looking
+as serious as he could.
+
+"Any tracks?" He inquired, as he glanced quickly over the ground to see
+for himself.
+
+"Not after that wind we had last night. They might have growed there for
+all I can see," growled Mr. Connors.
+
+"I reckon we better hold a pow-wow with th' foreman of this shack an'
+find out what he knows," suggested Mr. Cassidy. "This looks too good to
+be a swap."
+
+Mr. Connors looked his disgust at the idea and then a light broke in
+upon him. "Mebby they was hard pushed an' wanted fresh cayuses," he
+said. "A whole lot of people get hard pushed in this country. Anyhow,
+we'll prospect th' boss."
+
+They found the proprietor in his stocking feet, getting the breakfast,
+and Mr. Cassidy regarded the preparations with open approval. He counted
+the tin plates and found only three, and, thinking that there would be
+more plates if there were others to feed, glanced into the landlord's
+room. Not finding signs of other guests, on whom to lay the blame for
+the loss of his horse, he began to ask questions.
+
+"Much trade?" He inquired solicitously.
+
+"Yep," replied the landlord.
+
+Mr. Cassidy looked at the three tins and wondered if there had ever been
+any more with which to supply his trade. "Been out this morning?" he
+pursued.
+
+"Nope."
+
+"Talks purty nigh as much as Buck," thought Mr. Cassidy, and then said
+aloud, "Anybody else here?"
+
+"Nope."
+
+Mr. Cassidy lapsed into a painful and disgusted silence and his friend
+tried his hand.
+
+"Who owns a mosaic bronch, Chinee flag on th' near side, Skillet brand?"
+asked Mr. Connors.
+
+"Quien sabe?"
+
+"Gosh, he can nearly keep still in two lingoes," thought Mr. Cassidy.
+
+"Who owns a bob-tailed pinto, saddle-galled, cast in th' near eye, Star
+Diamond brand, white stockin' on th' off front prop, with a habit of
+scratchin' itself every other minute?" went on Mr. Connors.
+
+"Slim Travennes," replied the proprietor, flopping a flapjack. Mr.
+Cassidy reflectively scratched the back of his hand and looked innocent,
+but his mind was working overtime.
+
+"Who's Slim Travennes?" Asked Mr. Connors, never having heard of that
+person, owing to the reticence of his friend.
+
+"Captain of th' vigilantes."
+
+"What does he look like on th' general run?" Blandly inquired Mr.
+Cassidy, wishing to verify his suspicions. He thought of the trouble
+he had with Mr. Travennes up in Santa Fe and of the reputation that
+gentleman possessed. Then the fact that Mr. Travennes was the leader
+of the local vigilantes came to his assistance and he was sure that
+the captain had a hand in the change. All these points existed in misty
+groups in his mind, but the next remark of the landlord caused them to
+rush together and reveal the plot.
+
+"Good," said the landlord, flopping another flapjack, "and a warnin' to
+hoss thieves.
+
+"Ahem," coughed Mr. Cassidy and then continued, "is he a tall, lanky,
+yaller-headed son-of-a-gun, with a big nose an' lots of ears?"
+
+"Mebby so," answered the host.
+
+"Urn, slopping over into bad Sioux," thought Mr. Cassidy, and then said
+aloud, "How long has he hung around this here layout?" At the same time
+passing a warning glance at his companion.
+
+The landlord straightened up. "Look here, stranger, if yu hankers after
+his pedigree so all-fired hard yu had best pump him."
+
+"I told yu this here feller wasn't a man what would give away all he
+knowed," lied Mr. Connors, turning to his friend and indicating the
+host. "He ain't got time for that. Anybody can see that he is a powerful
+busy man. An' then he ain't no child."
+
+Mr. Cassidy thought that the landlord could tell all he knew in about
+five minutes and then not break any speed records for conversation, but
+he looked properly awed and impressed. "Well, yu needn't go an' get mad
+about it! I didn't know, did I?"
+
+"Who's gettin' mad?" Pugnaciously asked Mr. Connors. After his injured
+feelings had been soothed by Mr. Cassidy's sullen silence he again
+turned to the landlord.
+
+"What did this Travennes look like when yu saw him last?" Coaxed Mr.
+Connors.
+
+"Th' same as he does now, as yu can see by lookin' out of th' window.
+That's him down th' street," enlightened the host, thawing to the
+pleasant Mr. Connors.
+
+Mr. Cassidy adopted the suggestion and frowned. Mr. Travennes and two
+companions were walking toward the corral and Mr. Cassidy once again
+slid out of the window, his friend going by the door.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII. Travennes' Discomfiture
+
+
+When Mr. Travennes looked over the corral fence he was much chagrined to
+see a man and a Colt both paying strict attention to his nose.
+
+"Mornin', Duke," said the man with the gun. "Lose anything?"
+
+Mr. Travennes looked back at his friends and saw Mr. Connors sitting on
+a rock holding two guns. Mr. Travennes' right and left wings were the
+targets and they pitted their frowns against Mr. Connors' smile.
+
+"Not that I knows of," replied Mr. Travennes, shifting his feet
+uneasily.
+
+"Find anything?" Came from Mr. Cassidy as he sidled out of the gate.
+
+"Nope," replied the captain of the Terrors, eying the Colt. "Are yu in
+the habit of payin' early mornin' calls to this here corral?" persisted
+Mr. Cassidy, playing with the gun.
+
+"Ya-as. That's my business--I'm th' captain of the vigilantes."
+
+"That's too bad," sympathized Mr. Cassidy, moving forward a step.
+
+Mr. Travennes looked put out and backed off. "What yu mean, stickin' me
+up this-away?" He asked indignantly.
+
+"Yu needn't go an' get mad," responded Mr. Cassidy. "Just business. Yore
+cayuse an' another shore climbed this corral fence last night an' ate up
+our bronchs, an' I just nachurly want to know about it."
+
+Mr. Travennes looked his surprise and incredulity and craned his neck to
+see for himself. When he saw his horse peacefully scratching itself he
+swore and looked angrily up the street. Mr. Connors, behind the shack,
+was hidden to the view of those on the street, and when two men ran up
+at a signal from Mr. Travennes, intending to insert themselves in the
+misunderstanding, they were promptly lined up with the first two by the
+man on the rock.
+
+"Sit down," invited Mr. Connors, pushing a chunk of air out of the way
+with his guns. The last two felt a desire to talk and to argue the case
+on its merits, but refrained as the black holes in Mr. Connors' guns
+hinted at eruption. "Every time yu opens yore mouths yu gets closer to
+th' Great Divide," enlightened that person, and they were childlike in
+their belief.
+
+Mr. Travennes acted as though he would like to scratch his thigh where
+his Colt's chafed him, but postponed the event and listened to Mr.
+Cassidy, who was asking questions.
+
+"Where's our cayuses, General?"
+
+Mr. Travennes replied that he didn't know. He was worried, for he
+feared that his captor didn't have a secure hold on the hammer of the
+ubiquitous Colt's.
+
+"Where's my cayuse?" Persisted Mr. Cassidy.
+
+"I don't know, but I wants to ask yu how yu got mine," replied Mr.
+Travennes.
+
+"Yu tell me how mine got out an' I'll tell yu how yourn got in,"
+countered Mr. Cassidy.
+
+Mr. Connors added another to his collection before the captain replied.
+
+"Out in this country people get in trouble when they're found with other
+folks' cayuses," Mr. Travennes suggested.
+
+Mr. Cassidy looked interested and replied: "Yu shore ought to borrow
+some experience, an' there's lots floating around. More than one man has
+smoked in a powder mill, an' th' number of them planted who looked in
+th' muzzle of a empty gun is scandalous. If my remarks don't perculate
+right smart I'll explain."
+
+Mr. Travennes looked down the street again, saw number five added to the
+line-up, and coughed up chunks of broken profanity, grieving his host by
+his lack of courtesy.
+
+"Time," announced Mr. Cassidy, interrupting the round. "I wants them
+cayuses an' I wants 'em right now. Yu an' me will amble off an' get
+'em. I won't bore yu with tellin' yu what'll happen if yu gets skittish.
+Slope along an' don't be scared; I'm with yu," assured Mr. Cassidy as he
+looked over at Mr. Connors, whose ascetic soul pined for the flapjacks
+of which his olfactories caught intermittent whiffs.
+
+"Well, Red, I reckons yu has got plenty of room out here for all yu may
+corral; anyhow there ain't a whole lot more. My friend Slim an' I are
+shore going to have a devil of a time if we can t find them cussed
+bronchs. Whew, them flapjacks smell like a plain trail to payday. Just
+think of th' nice maple juice we used to get up to Cheyenne on them
+frosty mornings."
+
+"Get out of here an' lemme alone! 'What do yu allus want to go an' make
+a feller unhappy for? Can't yu keep still about grub when yu knows I
+ain't had my morning's feed yet?" Asked Mr. Connors, much aggrieved.
+
+"Well, I'll be back directly an' I'll have them cayuses or a scalp. Yu
+tend to business an' watch th' herd. That shorthorn yearling at th'
+end of th' line"--pointing to a young man who looked capable of taking
+risks--"he looks like he might take a chance an' gamble with yu,"
+remarked Mr. Cassidy, placing Mr. Travennes in front of him and
+pushing back his own sombrero. "Don't put too much maple juice on them
+flapjacks, Red," he warned as he poked his captive in the back of the
+neck as a hint to get along. Fortunately Mr. Connors' closing remarks
+are lost to history.
+
+Observing that Mr. Travennes headed south on the quest, Mr. Cassidy
+reasoned that the missing bronchos ought to be somewhere in the north,
+and he postponed the southern trip until such time when they would
+have more leisure at their disposal. Mr. Travennes showed a strong
+inclination to shy at this arrangement, but quieted down under
+persuasion, and they started off toward where Mr. Cassidy firmly
+believed the North Pole and the cayuses to be.
+
+"Yu has got quite a metropolis here," pleasantly remarked Mr. Cassidy
+as under his direction they made for a distant corral. "I can see
+four different types of architecture, two of 'em on one residence," he
+continued as they passed a wood and adobe hut. "No doubt the railroad
+will put a branch down here some day an' then yu can hire their old cars
+for yore public buildings. Then when yu gets a post-office yu will shore
+make Chicago hustle some to keep her end up. Let's assay that hollow for
+horse-hide; it looks promisin'."
+
+The hollow was investigated but showed nothing other than cactus and
+baked alkali. The corral came next, and there too was emptiness. For an
+hour the search was unavailing, but at the end of that time Mr. Cassidy
+began to notice signs of nervousness on the part of his guest, which
+grew less as they proceeded. Then Mr. Cassidy retraced their steps to
+the place where the nervousness first developed and tried another way
+and once more returned to the starting point.
+
+"Yu seems to hanker for this fool exercise," quoth Mr. Trayennes with
+much sarcasm. "If yu reckons I'm fond of this locoed ramblin' yu shore
+needs enlightenment."
+
+"Sometimes I do get these fits," confessed Mr. Cassidy, "an' when I
+do I'm dead sore on objections. Let's peek in that there hut," he
+suggested.
+
+"Huh; yore ideas of cayuses are mighty peculiar. Why don't you look for
+'em up on those cactuses or behind that mesquite? I wouldn't be a heap
+surprised if they was roostin' on th' roof. They are mighty knowing
+animals, cayuses. I once saw one that could figger like a schoolmarm,"
+remarked Mr. Travennes, beginning sarcastically and toning it down as he
+proceeded, out of respect for his companion's gun.
+
+"Well, they might be in th' shack," replied Mr. Cassidy. "Cayuses know
+so much that it takes a month to unlearn them. I wouldn't like to bet
+they ain't in that hut, though."
+
+Mr. Travennes snickered in a manner decidedly uncomplimentary and began
+to whistle, softly at first. The gentleman from the Bar-20 noticed that
+his companion was a musician; that when he came to a strong part he
+increased the tones until they bid to be heard at several hundred yards.
+When Mr. Travennes had reached a most passionate part in "Juanita" and
+was expanding his lungs to do it justice he was rudely stopped by the
+insistent pressure of his guard's Colt's on the most ticklish part of
+his ear.
+
+"I shore wish yu wouldn't strain yoreself thataway," said Mr. Cassidy,
+thinking that Mr. Travennes might be endeavoring to call assistance. "I
+went an' promised my mother on her deathbed that I wouldn't let nobody
+whistle out loud like that, an' th' opery is hereby stopped. Besides,
+somebody might hear them mournful tones an' think that something is th'
+matter, which it ain't."
+
+Mr. Travennes substituted heartfelt cursing, all of which was heavily
+accented.
+
+As they approached the hut Mr. Cassidy again tickled his prisoner and
+insisted that he be very quiet, as his cayuse was very sensitive to
+noise and it might be there. Mr. Cassidy still thought Mr. Travennes
+might have friends in the hut and wouldn't for the world disturb them,
+as he would present a splendid target as he approached the building.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV. The Tale of a Cigarette
+
+
+The open door revealed three men asleep on the earthen floor, two of
+whom were Mexicans. Mr. Cassidy then for the first time felt called
+upon to relieve his companion of the Colt's which so sorely itched that
+gentleman's thigh and then disarmed the sleeping guards.
+
+"One man an' a half," murmured Mr. Cassidy, it being in his creed that
+it took four Mexicans to make one Texan.
+
+In the far corner of the room were two bronchos, one of which tried in
+vain to kick Mr. Cassidy, not realizing that he was ten feet away. The
+noise awakened the sleepers, who sat up and then sprang to their feet,
+their hands instinctively streaking to their thighs for the weapons
+which peeked contentedly from the bosom of Mr. Cassidy's open shirt. One
+of the Mexicans made a lightning-like grab for the back of his neck for
+the knife which lay along his spine and was shot in the front of his
+neck for his trouble. The shot spoiled his aim, as the knife flashed
+past Mr. Cassidy's arm, wide by two feet, and thudded into the door
+frame, where it hummed angrily.
+
+"The only man who could do that right was th' man who invented it, Mr.
+Bowie, of Texas," explained Mr. Cassidy to the other Mexican. Then he
+glanced at the broncho, that was squealing in rage and fear at the shot,
+which sounded like a cannon in the small room, and laughed.
+
+"That's my cayuse, all right, an' he wasn't up no cactus nor roostin' on
+th' roof, neither. He's th' most affectionate beast I ever saw. It took
+me nigh onto six months afore I could ride him without fighting him to a
+standstill," said Mr. Cassidy to his guest. Then he turned to the horse
+and looked it over. "Come here! What d'yu mean, acting thataway? Yu
+ragged end of nothin' wobbling in space! Yu wall-eyed, ornery, locoed
+guide to Hades! Yu won't be so frisky when yu've made them seventy hot
+miles between here an' Alkaline in five hours," he promised, as he made
+his way toward the animal.
+
+Mr. Travennes walked over to the opposite wall and took down a pouch
+of tobacco which hung from a peg. He did this in a manner suggesting
+ownership, and after he had deftly rolled a cigarette with one hand he
+put the pouch in his pocket and, lighting up, inhaled deeply and with
+much satisfaction. Mr. Cassidy turned around and glanced the group over,
+wondering if the tobacco had been left in the hut on a former call.
+
+"Did yu find yore makings?" He asked, with a note of congratulations in
+his voice.
+
+"Yep. Want one?" Asked Mr. Travennes.
+
+Mr. Cassidy ignored the offer and turned to the guard whom he had found
+asleep.
+
+"Is that his tobacco?" He asked, and the guard, anxious to make
+everything run smoothly, told the truth and answered:
+
+"Shore. He left it here last night," whereupon Mr. Travennes swore and
+Mr. Cassidy smiled grimly.
+
+"Then yu knows how yore cayuse got in an' how mine got out," said the
+latter. "I wish yu would explain," he added, fondling his Colts.
+
+Mr. Travennes frowned and remained silent.
+
+"I can tell yu, anyhow," continued Mr. Cassidy, still smiling, but his
+eyes and jaw belied the smile. "Yu took them cayuses out because yu
+wanted yourn to be found in their places. Yu remembered Santa Fe an'
+it rankled in yu. Not being man enough to notify me that yu'd shoot on
+sight an' being afraid my friends would get yu if yu plugged me on th'
+sly, yu tried to make out that me an' Red rustled yore cayuses. That
+meant a lynching with me an' Red in th' places of honor. Yu never saw
+Red afore, but yu didn't care if he went with me. Yu don't deserve fair
+play, but I'm going to give it to yu because I don't want anybody to say
+that any of th' Bar-20 ever murdered a man, not even a skunk like yu.
+My friends have treated me too square for that. Yu can take this gun an
+yu can do one of three things with it, which are: walk out in th' open
+a hundred paces an' then turn an walk toward me--after you face me yu can
+set it a-going whenever yu want to; the second is, put it under yore hat
+an' I'll put mine an' th' others back by the cayuses. Then we'll toss
+up an' th' lucky man gets it to use as he wants. Th' third is, shoot
+yourself."
+
+Mr. Cassidy punctuated the close of his ultimatum by handing the weapon,
+muzzle first, and, because the other might be an adept at "twirling,"
+he kept its recipient covered during the operation. Then, placing his
+second Colt's with the captured weapons, he threw them through the door,
+being very careful not to lose the drop on his now armed prisoner.
+
+Mr. Travennes looked around and wiped the sweat from his forehead, and
+being an observant gentleman, took the proffered weapon and walked to
+the east, directly toward the sun, which at this time was halfway to the
+meridian. The glare of its straight rays and those reflected from the
+shining sand would, in a measure, bother Mr. Cassidy and interfere with
+the accuracy of his aim, and he was always thankful for small favors.
+
+Mr. Travennes was the possessor of accurate knowledge regarding the lay
+of the land, and the thought came to him that there was a small but deep
+hole out toward the east and that it was about the required distance
+away. This had been dug by a man who had labored all day in the burning
+sun to make an oven so that he could cook mesquite root in the manner
+he had seen the Apaches cook it. Mr. Travennes blessed hobbies, specific
+and general, stumbled thoughtlessly and disappeared from sight as the
+surprised Mr. Cassidy started forward to offer his assistance.
+
+Upon emphatic notification from the man in the hole that his help was
+not needed, Mr. Cassidy wheeled around and in great haste covered the
+distance separating him from the hut, whereupon Mr. Travennes swore
+in self-congratulation and regret. Mr. Cassidy's shots barked a cactus
+which leaned near Mr. Travennes' head and flecked several clouds of
+alkali near that person's nose, causing him to sneeze, duck, and grin.
+
+"It's his own gun," grumbled Mr. Cassidy as a bullet passed through his
+sombrero, having in mind the fact that his opponent had a whole belt
+full of .44's. If it had been Mr. Cassidy's gun that had been handed over
+he would have enjoyed the joke on Mr. Travennes, who would have had five
+cartridges between himself and the promised eternity, as he would have
+been unable to use the .44's in Mr. Cassidy's .45, while the latter would
+have gladly consented to the change, having as he did an extra .45. Never
+before had Mr. Cassidy looked with reproach upon his .45 caliber Colt's,
+and he sighed as he used it to notify Mr. Travennes that arbitration
+was not to be considered, which that person indorsed, said indorsement
+passing so close to Mr. Cassidy's ear that he felt the breeze made by
+it.
+
+"He's been practicin' since I plugged him up in Santa Fe," thought Mr.
+Cassidy, as he retired around the hut to formulate a plan of campaign.
+
+Mr. Travennes sang "Hi-le, hi-lo," and other selections, principally
+others, and wondered how Mr. Cassidy could hoist him out. The slack of
+his belt informed him that he was in the middle of a fast, and suggested
+starvation as the derrick that his honorable and disgusted adversary
+might employ.
+
+Mr. Cassidy, while figuring out his method of procedure, absent-mindedly
+jabbed a finger in his eye, and the ensuing tears floated an idea to
+him. He had always had great respect for ricochet shots since his friend
+Skinny Thompson had proved their worth on the hides of Sioux. If he
+could disturb the sand and convey several grains of it to Mr. Travennes'
+eyes the game would be much simplified. While planning for the proposed
+excavation, a la Colt's, he noticed several stones lying near at hand,
+and a new and better scheme presented itself for his consideration.
+If Mr. Travennes could be persuaded to get out of--well, it was worth
+trying.
+
+Mr. Cassidy lined up his gloomy collection and tersely ordered them to
+turn their backs to him and to stay in that position, the suggestion
+being that if they looked around they wouldn't be able to dodge quickly
+enough. He then slipped bits of his lariat over their wrists and ankles,
+tying wrists to ankles and each man to his neighbor. That finished
+to his satisfaction, he dragged them in the hut to save them from the
+burning rays of the sun.
+
+Having performed this act of kindness, he crept along the hot sand,
+taking advantage of every bit of cover afforded, and at last he reached
+a point within a hundred feet of the besieged. During the trip
+Mr. Travennes sang to his heart's content, some of the words being
+improvised for the occasion and were not calculated to increase Mr.
+Cassidy's respect for his own wisdom if he should hear them. Mr. Cassidy
+heard, however, and several fragments so forcibly intruded on his peace
+of mind that he determined to put on the last verse himself and to suit
+himself.
+
+Suddenly Mr. Travennes poked his head up and glanced at the hut. He was
+down again so quickly that there was no chance for a shot at him and
+he believed that his enemy was still sojourning in the rear of the
+building, which caused him to fear that he was expected to live on
+nothing as long as he could and then give himself up. Just to show his
+defiance he stretched himself out on his back and sang with all his
+might, his sombrero over his face to keep the glare of the sun out of
+his eyes.
+
+He was interrupted, however, forgot to finish a verse as he had
+intended, and jumped to one side as a stone bounced off his leg. Looking
+up, he saw another missile curve into his patch of sky and swiftly bear
+down on him. He avoided it by a hair's breadth and wondered what
+had happened. Then what Mr. Travennes thought was a balloon, being
+unsophisticated in matters pertaining to aerial navigation, swooped down
+upon him and smote him on the shoulder and also bounced off.
+
+Mr. Travennes hastily laid music aside and took up elocution as he
+dodged another stone and wished that the mesquite-loving crank had put
+on a roof. In evading the projectile he let his sombrero appear on a
+level with the desert, and the hum of a bullet as it passed through his
+head-gear and into the opposite wall made him wish that there had been
+constructed a cellar, also.
+
+"Hi-le, hi-lo" intruded upon his ear, as Mr. Cassidy got rid of the
+surplus of his heart's joy. Another stone the size of a man's foot
+shaved Mr. Travennes' ear and he hugged the side of the hole nearest his
+enemy.
+
+"Hibernate, blank yu!" derisively shouted the human catapult as he
+released a chunk of sandstone the size of a quail. "Draw in yore laigs
+an' buck," was his God-speed to the missile.
+
+"Hey, yu!" indignantly yowled Mr. Travennes from his defective storm
+cellar. "Don't yu know any better'n to heave things thataway?"
+
+"Hi-le, hi-lo," sang Mr. Cassidy, as another stone soared aloft in the
+direction of the complainant. Then he stood erect and awaited results
+with a Colt's in his hand leveled at the rim of the hole. A hat waved
+and an excited voice bit off chunks of expostulation and asked for an
+armistice. Then two hands shot up and Mr. Travennes, sore and disgusted
+and desperate, popped his head up an blinked at Mr. Cassidy's gun.
+
+"Yu was fillin' th' hole up," remarked Mr. Travennes in an accusing
+tone, hiding the real reason for his evacuation. "In a little while I'd
+a been th' top of a pile instead of th' bottom of a hole," he announced,
+crawling out and rubbing his head.
+
+Mr. Cassidy grinned and ordered his prisoner to one side while be
+secured the weapon which lay in the hole. Having obtained it as quickly
+as possible be slid it in his open shirt and clambered out again.
+
+"Yu remind me of a feller I used to know," remarked Mr. Travennes, as he
+led the way to the hut, trying not to limp. "Only he throwed dynamite.
+That was th' way he cleared off chaparral--blowed it off. He got so used
+to heaving away everything he lit that he spoiled three pipes in two
+days."
+
+Mr. Cassidy laughed at the fiction and then became grave as he pictured
+Mr. Connors sitting on the rock and facing down a line of men, any
+one of whom was capable of his destruction if given the interval of a
+second.
+
+When they arrived at the hut Mr. Cassidy observed that the prisoners had
+moved considerably. There was a cleanly swepttrail four yards long where
+they had dragged themselves, and they sat in the end nearer the guns.
+Mr. Cassidy smiled and fired close to the Mexican's ear, who lost in one
+frightened jump a little of what he had so laboriously gained.
+
+"Yu'll wear out yore pants," said Mr. Cassidy, and then added grimly,
+"an' my patience."
+
+Mr. Travennes smiled and thought of the man who so ably seconded Mr.
+Cassidy's efforts and who was probably shot by this time. The outfit of
+the Bar-20 was so well known throughout the land that he was aware the
+name of the other was Red Connors. An unreasoning streak of sarcasm
+swept over him and he could not resist the opportunity to get in a stab
+at his captor.
+
+"Mebby yore pard has wore out somebody's patience, too," said Mr.
+Travennes, suggestively and with venom.
+
+His captor wheeled toward him, his face white with passion, and Mr.
+Travennes shrank back and regretted the words.
+
+"I ain't shootin' dogs this here trip," said Mr. Cassidy, trembling with
+scorn and anger, "so yu can pull yourself together. I'll give yu another
+chance, but yu wants to hope almighty hard that Red is O. K. If he
+ain't, I'll blow yu so many ways at once that if yu sprouts yu'll make
+a good acre of weeds. If he is all right yu'd better vamoose this range,
+for there won't be no hole for yu to crawl into next time. What friends
+yu have left will have to tote yu off an' plant yu," he finished with
+emphasis. He drove the horses outside, and, after severing the bonds on
+his prisoners, lined them up.
+
+"Yu," he began, indicating all but Mr. Travennes, "yu amble right smart
+toward Canada," pointing to the north. "Keep a-going till yu gets far
+enough away so a Colt won't find yu." Here he grinned with delight as he
+saw his Sharp's rifle in its sheath on his saddle and, drawing it
+forth, he put away his Colts and glanced at the trio, who were already
+industriously plodding northward. "Hey!" he shouted, and when they
+sullenly turned to see what new idea he had found he gleefully waved his
+rifle at them and warned them further: "This is a Sharp's an' it's good
+for half a mile, so don't stop none too soon."
+
+Having sent them directly away from their friends so they could not have
+him "potted" on the way back, he mounted his broncho and indicated to
+Mr. Travennes that he, too, was to ride, watching that that person did
+not make use of the Winchester which Mr. Connors was foolish enough to
+carry around on his saddle. Winchesters were Mr. Cassidy's pet aversion
+and Mr. Connors' most prized possession, this difference of opinion
+having upon many occasions caused hasty words between them. Mr. Connors,
+being better with his Winchester than Mr. Cassidy was with his Sharp's,
+had frequently proved that his choice was the wiser, but Mr. Cassidy
+was loyal to the Sharp's and refused to be convinced. Now, however,
+the Winchester became pregnant with possibilities and, therefore, Mr.
+Travennes rode a few yards to the left and in advance, where the rifle
+was in plain sight, hanging as it did on the right of Mr. Connors'
+saddle, which Mr. Travennes graced so well.
+
+The journey back to town was made in good time and when they came to
+the buildings Mr. Cassidy dismounted and bade his companion do likewise,
+there being too many corners that a fleeing rider could take advantage
+of. Mr. Travennes felt of his bumps and did so, wishing hard things
+about Mr. Cassidy.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV. The Penalty
+
+
+While Mr. Travennes had been entertained in the manner narrated, Mr.
+Connors had passed the time by relating stale jokes to the uproarious
+laughter of his extremely bored audience, who had heard the aged efforts
+many times since they had first seen the light of day, and most of whom
+earnestly longed for a drink. The landlord, hearing the hilarity, had
+taken advantage of the opportunity offered to see a free show. Not being
+able to see what the occasion was for the mirth, he had pulled on his
+boots and made his way to the show with a flapjack in the skillets
+which, in his haste, he had forgotten to put down. He felt sure that he
+would be entertained, and he was not disappointed. He rounded the corner
+and was enthusiastically welcomed by the hungry Mr. Connors, whose
+ubiquitous guns coaxed from the skillet its dyspeptic wad.
+
+"Th' saints be praised!" ejaculated Mr. Connors as a matter of form,
+not having a very clear idea of just what saints were, but he knew what
+flapjacks were and greedily overcame the heroic resistance of the one
+provided by chance and his own guns. As he rolled his eyes in ecstatic
+content the very man Mr. Cassidy had warned him against suddenly arose
+and in great haste disappeared around the corner of the corral, from
+which point of vantage he vented his displeasure at the treatment he had
+received by wasting six shots at the mortified Mr. Connors.
+
+"Steady!" sang out that gentleman as the line-up wavered. "He's
+a precedent to hell for yu fellers! Don't yu get ambitious, none
+whatever." Then he wondered how long it would take the fugitive to
+secure a rifle and return to release the others by drilling him at long
+range.
+
+His thoughts were interrupted by the vision of a red head that climbed
+into view over a rise a short distance off and he grinned his delight as
+Mr. Cassidy loomed up, jaunty and triumphant. Mr. Cassidy was executing
+calisthenics with a Colt in the rear of Mr. Travennes' neck and was
+leading the horses.
+
+Mr. Connors waved the skillet and his friend grinned his congratulations
+at what the token signified.
+
+"I see yu got some more," said Mr. Cassidy, as he went down the line-up
+from the rear and collected nineteen weapons of various makes and
+conditions, this number being explained by the fact that all but one of
+the prisoners wore two. Then he added the five that had kicked against
+his ribs ever since he had left the hut, and carefully threaded the end
+of his lariat through the trigger guards.
+
+"Looks like we stuck up a government supply mule, Red," he remarked,
+as he fastened the whole collection to his saddle. "Fourteen colts, six
+Merwin-Hulbert's, three Prescott, an' one puzzle," he added, examining
+the puzzle. "Made in Germany, it says, and it shore looks like it. It's
+got little pins stickin' out of th' cylinder, like you had to swat it
+with a hammer or a rock, or somethin' to make it go off. Must be damn
+dangerous, to most anybody around. Looks more like a cactus than a
+six-shooter-gosh, it's a ten-shooter! I allus said them Dutchmen was
+bloody-minded cusses. Think of bein' able to shoot yoreself ten times
+before th' blame thing stops!" Then looking at the line-up for the owner
+of the weapon, he laughed at the woeful countenances displayed. "Did
+they sidle in by companies or squads?" He asked.
+
+"By twos, mostly. Then they parade-rested an' got discharged from duty.
+I had eleven, but one got homesick, or disgusted, or something, an'
+deserted. It was that cussed flapjack," confessed and explained Mr.
+Connors.
+
+"What!" said Mr. Cassidy in a loud voice. "Got away! Well, we'll have to
+make our get-away plumb sudden or we'll never go."
+
+At this instant the escaped man again began his bombardment from the
+corner of the corral and Mr. Cassidy paused, indignant at the fusillade
+which tore up the dust at his feet. He looked reproachfully at Mr.
+Connors and then circled out on the plain until he caught a glimpse of
+a fleeing cow-puncher, whose back rapidly grew smaller in the
+fast-increasing distance.
+
+"That's yore friend, Red," said Mr. Cassidy as he returned from his
+reconnaissance. "He's that short-horn yearling. Mebby he'll come back
+again," he added hopefully. "Anyhow, we've got to move. He'll collect
+reinforcements an' mebby they all won't shoot like him. Get up on yore
+Clarinda an' hold th' fort for me," he ordered, pushing the farther
+horse over to his friend. Mr. Connors proved that an agile man can mount
+a restless horse and not lose the drop, and backed off three hundred
+yards, deftly substituting his Winchester for the Colts. Then Mr.
+Cassidy likewise mounted with his attention riveted elsewhere and backed
+off to the side of his companion.
+
+The bombardment commenced again from the corral, but this time Mr.
+Connors' rifle slid around in his lap and exploded twice. The bellicose
+gentleman of the corral yelled in pain and surprise and vanished.
+
+"Purty good for a Winchester," said Mr. Cassidy in doubtful
+congratulation.
+
+"That's why I got him," snapped Mr. Connors in brief reply, and then
+he laughed. "Is them th' vigilantes what never let a man get away?" He
+scornfully asked, backing down the street and patting his Winchester.
+
+"Well, Red, they wasn't all there. They was only twelve all told,"
+excused Mr. Cassidy. "An' then we was two," he explained, as he wished
+the collection of six-shooters was on Mr. Connors' horse so they
+wouldn't bark his shin.
+
+"An we still are," corrected Mr. Connors, as they wheeled and galloped
+for Alkaline.
+
+As the sun sank low on the horizon Mr. Peters finished ordering
+provisions at the general store, the only one Alkaline boasted, and
+sauntered to the saloon where he had left his men. He found diem a few
+dollars richer, as they had borrowed ten dollars from the bartender on
+their reputations as poker players and had used the money to stake Mr.
+McAllister in a game against the local poker champion.
+
+"Has Hopalong an' Red showed up yet?" Asked Mr. Peters, frowning at the
+delay already caused.
+
+"Nope," replied Johnny Nelson, as he paused from tormenting Billy
+Williams.
+
+At that minute the doorway was darkened and Mr. Cassidy and Mr. Connors
+entered and called for refreshments. Mr. Cassidy dropped a huge bundle
+of six-shooters on the floor, making caustic remarks regarding their
+utility.
+
+"What's th' matter?" Inquired Mr. Peters of Mr. Cassidy. "Yu looks mad
+an' anxious. An' where in blazes did yu corral them guns?"
+
+Mr. Cassidy drank deep and then reported with much heat what had
+occurred at Cactus Springs and added that he wanted to go back and wipe
+out the town, said desire being luridly endorsed by Mr. Connors.
+
+"Why, shore," said Mr. Peters, "we'll all go. Such doings must be
+stopped instanter." Then he turned to the assembled outfits and asked
+for a vote, which was unanimous for war.
+
+Shortly afterward eighteen angry cowpunchers rode to the east, two
+red-haired gentlemen well in front and urging speed. It was 8 P.M. when
+they left Alkaline, and the cool of the night was so delightful that the
+feeling of ease which came upon them made them lax and they lost three
+hours in straying from the dim trail. At eight o'clock the next morning
+they came in sight of their destination and separated into two squads,
+Mr. Cassidy leading the northern division and Mr. Connors the one which
+circled to the south. The intention was to attack from two directions,
+thus taking the town from front and rear.
+
+Cactus Springs lay gasping in the excessive heat and the vigilantes who
+had toed Mr. Connors' line the day before were lounging in the shade of
+the "Palace" saloon, telling what they would do if they ever faced the
+same man again. Half a dozen sympathizers offered gratuitous condolence
+and advice and all were positive that they knew where Mr. Cassidy and
+Mr. Connors would go when they died.
+
+The rolling thunder of madly pounding hoofs disturbed their post-mortem
+and they arose in a body to flee from half their number, who, guns in
+hands, charged down upon them through clouds of sickly white smoke.
+Travennes' Terrors were minus many weapons and they could not be
+expected to give a glorious account of themselves. Windows rattled and
+fell in and doors and walls gave off peculiar sounds as they grew full
+of holes. Above the riot rattled the incessant crack of Colt's and
+Winchester, emphasized at close intervals by the assertive roar of
+buffalo guns. Off to the south came another rumble of hoofs and Mr.
+Connors, leading the second squad,--arrived to participate in the
+payment of the debt.
+
+Smoke spurted from windows and other points of vantage and hung wavering
+in the heated air. The shattering of woodwork told of heavy slugs
+finding their rest, and the whines that grew and diminished in the air
+sang the course of .45s.
+
+While the fight raged hottest Mr. Nelson sprang from his horse and ran
+to the "Palace," where he collected and piled a heap of tinder like
+wood, and soon the building burst out in flames, which, spreading, swept
+the town from end to end.
+
+Mr. Cassidy fired slowly and seemed to be waiting for something. Mr.
+Connors laid aside his hot Winchester and devoted his attention to his
+Colts. A spurt of flame and smoke leaped from the window of a 'dobe
+hut and Mr. Connors sat down, firing as he went. A howl from the window
+informed him that he had made a hit, and Mr. Cassidy ran out and dragged
+him to the shelter of a near-by bowlder and asked how much he was hurt.
+
+"Not much--in the calf," grunted Mr. Connors. "He was a bad shot--must
+have been the cuss that got away yesterday," speculated the injured
+man as he slowly arose to his feet. Mr. Cassidy dissented from force of
+habit and returned to his station. Mr. Travennes, who was sleeping
+late that morning, coughed and fought for air in his sleep, awakened in
+smoke, rubbed his eyes to make sure and, scorning trousers and shirt,
+ran clad in his red woolen undergarments to the corral, where he mounted
+his scared horse and rode for the desert and safety.
+
+Mr. Cassidy, swearing at the marksmanship of a man who fired at his head
+and perforated his sombrero, saw a crimson rider sweep down upon him,
+said rider being heralded by a blazing .44.
+
+"Gosh!" ejaculated Mr. Cassidy, scarcely believing his eyes. "Oh, it's
+my friend Slim going to hades," he remarked to himself in audible and
+relieved explanation. Mr. Cassidy's Colts cracked a protest and then he
+joined Mr. Peters and the others and with them fought his way out of the
+flame-swept town of Cactus Springs.
+
+An hour later Mr. Connors glanced behind him at the smoke silhouetted on
+the horizon and pushed his way to where Mr. Cassidy rode in silence. Mr.
+Connors grinned at his friend of the red hair, who responded in the same
+manner.
+
+"Did yu see Slim?" Casually inquired Mr. Connors, looking off to the
+south.
+
+Mr. Cassidy sat upright in his saddle and felt of his Colts. "Yes," he
+replied, "I saw him."
+
+Mr. Connors thereupon galloped on in silence.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI. Rustlers on the Range
+
+
+The affair at Cactus Springs had more effect on the life at the Bar-20
+than was realized by the foreman. News travels rapidly, and certain
+men, whose attributes were not of the sweetest, heard of it and swore
+vengeance, for Slim Travennes had many friends, and the result of his
+passing began to show itself. Outlaws have as their strongest defense
+the fear which they inspire, and little time was lost in making
+reprisals, and these caused Buck Peters to ride into Buckskin one bright
+October morning and then out the other side of the town. Coming to
+himself with a start he looked around shamefacedly and retraced his
+course. He was very much troubled, for, as foreman of the Bar-20, he
+had many responsibilities, and when things ceased to go aright he was
+expected not only to find the cause of the evil, but also the remedy.
+That was what he was paid seventy dollars a month for and that was what
+he had been endeavoring to do. As yet, however, he had only accomplished
+what the meanest cook's assistant had done. He knew the cause of his
+present woes to be rustlers (cattle thieves), and that was all.
+
+Riding down the wide, quiet street, he stopped and dismounted before the
+ever-open door of a ramshackle, one-story frame building. Tossing the
+reins over the flattened ears of his vicious pinto he strode into the
+building and leaned easily against the bar, where he drummed with his
+fingers and sank into a reverie.
+
+A shining bald pate, bowed over an open box, turned around and
+revealed a florid face, set with two small, twinkling blue eyes, as the
+proprietor, wiping his hands on his trousers, made his way to Buck's end
+of the bar.
+
+"Mornin', Buck. How's things?"
+
+The foreman, lost in his reverie, continued to stare out the door.
+
+"Mornin'," repeated the man behind the bar. "How's things?"
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated the foreman, smiling, "purty cussed."
+
+"Anything flew?"
+
+"Th' C-80 lost another herd last night."
+
+His companion swore and placed a bottle at the foreman's elbow, but
+the latter shook his head. "Not this mornin'--I'll try one of them vile
+cigars, however."
+
+"Them cigars are th' very best that--" began the proprietor, executing
+the order.
+
+"Oh, heck!" exclaimed Buck with weary disgust. "Yu don't have to palaver
+none: I shore knows all that by heart."
+
+"Them cigars--" repeated the proprietor.
+
+"Yas, yas; them cigars--I know all about them cigars. Yu gets them for
+twenty dollars a thousand an' hypnotizes us into payin' yu a hundred,"
+replied the foreman, biting off the end 'of his weed. Then he stared
+moodily and frowned. "I wonder why it is?" He asked. "We punchers like
+good stuff an' we pays good prices with good money. What do we get? Why,
+cabbage leaves an' leather for our smokin' an' alcohol an' extract for
+our drink. Now, up in Kansas City we goes to a sumptious layout, pays
+less an' gets bang-up stuff. If yu smelled one of them K. C. cigars yu'd
+shore have to ask what it was, an' as for the liquor, why, yu'd think
+St. Peter asked yu to have one with him. It's shore wrong somewhere."
+
+"They have more trade in K. C.," suggested the proprietor.
+
+"An' help, an' taxes, an' a license, an' rent, an' brass, cut glass,
+mahogany an' French mirrors," countered the foreman.
+
+"They have more trade," reiterated the man with the cigars.
+
+"Forty men spend thirty dollars apiece with yu every month." The
+proprietor busied himself under the bar. "Yu'll feel better to-morrow.
+Anyway, what do yu care, yu won't lose yore job," he said, emerging.
+
+Buck looked at him and frowned, holding back the words which formed in
+anger. What was the use, he thought, when every man judged the world in
+his own way.
+
+"Have yu seen any of th' boys?" He asked, smiling again.
+
+"Nary a boy. Who do yu reckon's doin' all this rustlin'?"
+
+"I'm reckonin', not shoutin'," responded the foreman.
+
+The proprietor looked out the window and grinned: "Here comes one of
+yourn now."
+
+The newcomer stopped his horse in a cloud of dust, playfully kicked the
+animal in the ribs and entered, dusting the alkali from him with a huge
+sombrero. Then he straightened up and sniffed: "What's burnin'?" he
+asked, simulating alarm. Then he noticed the cigar between the teeth of
+his foreman and grinned: "Gee, but yore a brave man, Buck."
+
+"Hullo, Hopalong," said the foreman. "Want a smoke?" Waving his hand
+toward the box on the bar.
+
+Mr. Hopalong Cassidy side-stepped and began to roll a cigarette: "Shore,
+but I'll burn my own--I know what it is."
+
+"What was yu doin' to my cayuse afore yu come in?" Asked Buck.
+
+"Nothin'," replied the newcomer. "That was mine what I kicked in th'
+corrugations."
+
+"How is it yore ridin' the calico?" Asked the foreman. "I thought yu was
+dead stuck on that piebald."
+
+"That piebald's a goat; he's beein livin' off my pants lately,"
+responded Hopalong. "Every time I looks th' other way he ambles over and
+takes a bite at me. Yu just wait 'til this rustler business is roped,
+an' branded, an' yu'll see me eddicate that blessed scrapheap into
+eatin' grass again." He swiped Billy's shirt th' other day--took it right
+off th' corral wall, where Billy's left it to dry. Then, seeing Buck
+raise his eyebrows, he explained: "Shore, he washed it again. That makes
+three times since last fall."
+
+The proprietor laughed and pushed out the ever-ready bottle, but
+Hopalong shoved it aside and told the reason: "Ever since I was up to K.
+C. I've been spoiled. I'm drinkin' water an' slush."
+
+"For Pete's sake, has any more of yu fellers been up to K. C.?" queried
+the proprietor in alarm.
+
+"Shore: Red an' Billy was up there, too." responded Hopalong. "Red's got
+a few remarks to shout to yu about yore pain-killer. Yu better send for
+some decent stuff afore he comes to town," he warned.
+
+Buck swung away from the bar and looked at his dead cigar. Then he
+turned to Hopalong. "What did you find?" He asked.
+
+"Same old story: nice wide trail up to th' Staked Plain--then nothin'."
+
+"It shore beats me," soliloquized the foreman. "It shore beats me."
+
+"Think it was Tamale Jose's old gang?" Asked Hopalong.
+
+"If it was they took th' wrong trail home--that ain't th' way to Mexico."
+
+Hopalong tossed aside his half-smoked cigarette. "Well, come on home;
+what's th' use stewin' over it? It'll come out all O.K. in th' wash."
+Then he laughed: "There won't be no piebald waitin' for it."
+
+Evading Buck's playful blow he led the way to the door, and soon
+they were a cloud of dust on the plain. The proprietor, despairing of
+customers under the circumstances, absent-mindedly wiped oil on the bar,
+and sought his chair for a nap, grumbling about the way his trade had
+fallen off, for there were few customers, and those who did call were
+heavy with loss of sleep, and with anxiety, and only paused long enough
+to toss off their drink. On the ranges there were occurrences which
+tried men's souls.
+
+For several weeks cattle had been disappearing from the ranges and the
+losses had long since passed the magnitude of those suffered when Tamale
+Jose and his men had crossed the Rio Grande and repeatedly levied heavy
+toll on the sleek herds of the Pecos Valley. Tamale Jose had raided once
+too often, and prosperity and plenty had followed on the ranches and the
+losses had been forgotten until the fall round-ups clearly showed that
+rustlers were again at work.
+
+Despite the ingenuity of the ranch owners and the unceasing vigilance
+and night rides of the cow-punchers, the losses steadily increased until
+there was promised a shortage which would permit no drive to the western
+terminals of the railroad that year. For two weeks the banks of the Rio
+Grande had been patrolled and sharp-eyed men searched daily for trails
+leading southward, for it was not strange to think that the old raiders
+were again at work, notwithstanding the fact that they had paid dearly
+for their former depredations.
+
+The patrols failed to discover anything out of the ordinary and the
+searchers found no trails. Then it was that the owners and foremen of
+the four central ranches met in Cowan's saloon and sat closeted together
+for all of one hot afternoon.
+
+The conference resulted in riders being dispatched from all the ranches
+represented, and one of the couriers, Mr. Red Connors, rode north, his
+destination being far-away Montana. All the ranches within a radius of
+a hundred miles received letters and blanks and one week later the Pecos
+Valley Cattle-Thief Elimination Association was organized and working,
+with Buck as Chief Ranger.
+
+One of the outcomes of Buck's appointment was a sudden and marked
+immigration into the affected territory. Mr. Connors returned from
+Montana with Mr. Frenchy McAllister, the foreman of the Tin-Cup, who was
+accompanied by six of his best and most trusted men. Mr. McAllister and
+party were followed by Mr. You-bet Somes, foreman of the Two-X-Two of
+Arizona, and five of his punchers, and later on the same day Mr. Pie
+Willis, accompanied by Mr. Billy Jordan and his two brothers, arrived
+from the Panhandle. The O-Bar-O, situated close to the town of Muddy
+Wells, increased its payroll by the addition of nine men, each of whom
+bore the written recommendation of the foreman of the Bar-20. The C-80,
+Double Arrow and the Three Triangle also received heavy reinforcements,
+and even Carter, owner of the Barred Horseshoe, far removed from the
+zone of the depredations, increased his outfits by half their regular
+strength.
+
+Buck believed that if a thing was worth doing at all that it was worth
+doing very well, and his acquaintances were numerous and loyal. The
+collection of individuals that responded to the call were noteworthy
+examples of "gun-play" and their aggregate value was at par with twice
+their numbers in cavalry.
+
+
+Each ranch had one large ranch-house and numerous line-houses scattered
+along the boundaries. These latter, while intended as camps for the
+outriders, had been erected in the days, none too remote, when Apaches,
+Arrapahoes, and even Cheyennes raided southward, and they had been
+constructed with the idea of defense paramount. Upon more than one
+occasion a solitary line-rider had retreated within their adobe walls
+and had successfully resisted all the cunning and ferocity of a score
+of paint-bedaubed warriors and, when his outfit had rescued him, emerged
+none the worse for his ordeal.
+
+On the Bar-20, Buck placed these houses in condition to withstand seige.
+Twin barrels of water stood in opposite corners, provisions were stored
+on the hanging shelves and the bunks once again reveled in untidiness.
+Spare rifles, in pattern ranging from long-range Sharp's and buffalo
+guns to repeating rifles, leaned against the walls, and unbroken boxes
+of cartridges were piled above the bunks. Instead of the lonesome
+outrider, he placed four men to each house, two of whom were to remain
+at home and hold the house while their companions rode side by side on
+their multi-mile beat.
+
+There were six of these houses and, instead of returning each night to
+the same line-house, the outriders kept on and made the circuit,
+thus keeping every one well informed and breaking the monotony. These
+measures were expected to cause the rustling operations to cease at
+once, but the effect was to shift the losses to the Double Arrow, the
+line-houses of which boasted only one puncher each. Unreasonable economy
+usually defeats its object.
+
+The Double Arrow was restricted on the north by the Staked Plain, which
+in itself was considered a superb defense. The White Sand Hills formed
+its eastern boundary and were thought to be second only to the northern
+protection. The only reason that could be given for the hitherto
+comparative immunity from the attacks of the rustlers was that its
+cattle clung to the southern confines where there were numerous springs,
+thus making imperative the crossing of its territory to gain the herds.
+
+It was in line-house No. 3, most remote of all, that Johnny Redmond
+fought his last fight and was found face down in the half ruined house
+with a hole in the back of his head, which proved that one man was
+incapable of watching all the loop holes in four walls at once. There
+must have been some casualties on the other side, for Johnny was reputed
+to be very painstaking in his "gunplay," and the empty shells which lay
+scattered on the floor did not stand for as many ciphers, of that his
+foreman was positive.
+
+He was buried the day he was found, and the news of his death ran
+quickly from ranch to ranch and made more than one careless puncher
+arise and pace the floor in anger. More men came to the Double Arrow and
+its sentries were doubled. The depredations continued, however, and
+one night a week later Frank Swift reeled into the ranch-house and fell
+exhausted across the supper table. Rolling hoof-beats echoed flatly
+and died away on the plain, but the men who pursued them returned empty
+handed. The wounds of the unfortunate were roughly dressed and in his
+delirium he recounted the fight. His companion was found literally shot
+to pieces twenty paces from the door. One wall was found blown in, and
+this episode, when coupled with the use of dynamite, was more than could
+be tolerated.
+
+When Buck had been informed of this he called to him Hopalong Cassidy,
+Red Connors and Frenchy McAllister, and the next day the three men rode
+north and the contingents of the ranches represented in the Association
+were divided into two squads, one of which was to remain at home and
+guard the ranches; the other, to sleep fully dressed and armed and never
+to stray far from their ranch-houses and horses. These latter would be
+called upon to ride swiftly and far when the word came.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII. Mr. Trendley Assumes Added Importance
+
+
+That the rustlers were working under a well organized system was
+evident. That they were directed by a master of the game was ceaselessly
+beaten into the consciousness of the Association by the diversity, dash
+and success of their raids. No one, save the three men whom they had
+destroyed, had ever seen them. But, like Tamale Jose, they had raided
+once too often.
+
+Mr. Trendley, more familiarly known to men as "Slippery," was the
+possessor of a biased conscience, if any at all. Tall, gaunt and
+weather-beaten and with coal-black eyes set deep beneath hairless
+eyebrows, he was sinister and forbidding. Into his forty-five years of
+existence he had crowded a century of experience, and unsavory rumors
+about him existed in all parts of the great West. From Canada to Mexico
+and from Sacramento to Westport his name stood for brigandage. His
+operations had been conducted with such consummate cleverness that in
+all the accusations there was lacking proof.
+
+Only once had he erred, and then in the spirit of pure deviltry and in
+the days of youthful folly, and his mistake was a written note. He
+was even thought by some to have been concerned in the Mountain Meadow
+Massacre; others thought him to have been the leader of the band of
+outlaws that had plundered along the Santa Fe Trail in the late '60's.
+In Montana and Wyoming he was held responsible for the outrages of the
+band that had descended from the Hole-in-the-Wall territory and for over
+a hundred miles carried murder and theft that shamed as being weak the
+most assiduous efforts of zealous Cheyennes. It was in this last raid
+that he had made the mistake and it was in this raid that Frenchy
+McAllister had lost his wife.
+
+When Frenchy had first been approached by Buck as to his going in search
+of the rustlers he had asked to go alone. This had been denied by the
+foreman of the Bar-20 because the men whom he had selected to accompany
+the scout were of such caliber that their presence could not possibly
+form a hindrance. Besides being his most trusted friends they were
+regarded by him as being the two best exponents of "gun-play" that the
+West afforded. Each was a specialist: Hopalong, expert beyond belief
+with his Colt's six-shooters, was only approached by Red, whose
+Winchester was renowned for its accuracy. The three made a perfect
+combination, as the rashness of the two younger men would be under the
+controlling influence of a man who could retain his coolness of mind
+under all circumstances.
+
+When Buck and Frenchy looked into each other's eyes there sprang into
+the mind of each the same name--Slippery Trendley. Both had spent the
+greater part of a year in fruitless search for that person, the foreman
+of the Tin-Cup in vengeance for the murder of his wife, the blasting of
+his prospects and the loss of his herds; Buck, out of sympathy for his
+friend and also because they had been partners in the Double Y. Now that
+the years had passed and the long-sought-for opportunity was believed
+to be at hand, there was promised either a cessation of the outrages or
+that Buck would never again see his friends.
+
+When the three mounted and came to him for final instructions Buck
+forced himself to be almost repellent in order to be capable of coherent
+speech. Hopalong glanced sharply at him and then understood, Red was all
+attention and eagerness and remarked nothing but the words.
+
+"Have yu ever heard of Slippery Trendley?" Harshly inquired the foreman.
+
+They nodded, and on the faces of the younger men a glint of hatred
+showed itself, but Frenchy wore his poker countenance.
+
+Buck continued: "Th' reason I asked yu was because I don't want yu to
+think yore goin' on no picnic. I ain't shore it's him, but I've had
+some hopeful information. Besides, he is th' only man I knows of who's
+capable of th' plays that have been made. It's hardly necessary for me
+to tell yu to sleep with one eye open and never to get away from yore
+guns. Now I'm goin' to tell yu th' hardest part: yu are goin' to search
+th' Staked Plain from one end to th' other, an' that's what no white
+man's ever done to my knowledge.
+
+"Now, listen to this an' don't forget it. Twenty miles north from Last
+Stand Rock is a spring; ten miles south of that bend in Hell Arroyo is
+another. If yu gets lost within two days from th' time yu enters th'
+Plain, put yore left hand on a cactus sometime between sun-up an'
+noon, move around until yu are over its shadow an' then ride straight
+ahead--that's south. If you goes loco beyond Last Stand Rock, follow th'
+shadows made before noon--that's th' quickest way to th' Pecos. Yu all
+knows what to do in a sand-storm, so I won't bore you with that. Repeat
+all I've told yu," he ordered and they complied.
+
+"I'm tellin' yu this," continued the foreman, indicating the two
+auxiliaries, "because yu might get separated from Frenchy. Now I
+suggests that yu look around near the' Devils Rocks: I've heard that
+there are several water holes among them, an' besides, they might be
+turned into fair corrals. Mind yu, I know what I've said sounds damned
+idiotic for anybody that has had as much experience with th' Staked
+Plain as I have, but I've had every other place searched for miles
+around. Th' men of all th' ranches have been scoutin' an' th' Plain is
+th' only place left. Them rustlers has got to be found if we have to dig
+to hell for them. They've taken th' pot so many times that they reckons
+they owns it, an' we've got to at least make a bluff at drawin' cards.
+Mebby they're at th' bottom of th' Pecos," here he smiled faintly, "but
+wherever they are, we've got to find them. I want to holler 'Keno."
+
+"If you finds where they hangs out come away instanter," here his face
+hardened and his eyes narrowed, "for it'll take more than yu three
+to deal with them th' way I'm a-hankerin' for. Come right back to th'
+Double Arrow, send me word by one of their punchers an' get all the rest
+you can afore I gets there. It'll take me a day to get th' men together
+an' to reach yu. I'm goin' to use smoke signals to call th' other
+ranches, so there won't be no time lost. Carry all th' water yu can pack
+when yu leaves th' Double Arrow an' don't depend none on cactus juice.
+Yu better take a pack horse to carry it, an' yore grub--yu can shoot it
+if yu have to hit th' trail real hard."
+
+The three riders felt of their accouterments, said "So long," and
+cantered off for the pack horse and extra ammunition. Then they rode
+toward the Double Arrow, stopping at Cowan's long enough to spend some
+money, and reached the Double Arrow at nightfall. Early the next morning
+they passed the last line-house and, with the profane well-wishes of
+its occupants ringing in their ears, passed onto one of Nature's worst
+blunders--the Staked Plain.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. The Search Begins
+
+
+As the sun arose it revealed three punchers riding away from
+civilization. On all sides, stretching to the evil-appearing horizon,
+lay vast blotches of dirty-white and faded yellow alkali and sand.
+Occasionally a dwarfed mesquite raised its prickly leaves and rustled
+mournfully. With the exception of the riders and an occasional Gila
+monster, no life was discernible. Cacti of all shapes and sizes reared
+aloft their forbidding spines or spread out along the sand. All was
+dead, ghastly; all was oppressive, startlingly repellent in its sinister
+promise; all was the vastness of desolation.
+
+Hopalong knew this portion of the desert for ten miles inward--he had
+rescued straying cattle along its southern rim--but once beyond that
+limit they would have to trust to chance and their own abilities. There
+were water holes on this skillet, but nine out of ten were death traps,
+reeking with mineral poisons, colored and alkaline. The two mentioned by
+Buck could not be depended on, for they came and went, and more than one
+luckless wanderer had depended on them to allay his thirst, and had died
+for his trust.
+
+So the scouts rode on in silence, noting the half-buried skeletons of
+cattle which were strewn plentifully on all sides. Nearly three per
+cent, of the cattle belonging to the Double Arrow yearly found death
+on this tableland, and the herds of that ranch numbered many thousand
+heads. It was this which made the Double Arrow the poorest of the
+ranches, and it was this which allowed insufficient sentries in its
+line-houses. The skeletons were not all of cattle, for at rare intervals
+lay the sand-worn frames of men.
+
+On the morning of the second day the oppression increased with the wind
+and Red heaved a sigh of restlessness. The sand began to skip across the
+plain, in grains at first and hardly noticeable. Hopalong turned in his
+saddle and regarded the desert with apprehension. As he looked he
+saw that where grains had shifted handfuls were now moving. His mount
+evinced signs of uneasiness and was hard to control.
+
+A gust of wind, stronger than the others, pricked his face and grains
+of sand rolled down his neck. The leather of his saddle emitted strange
+noises as if a fairy tattoo was being beaten upon it and he raised his
+hand and pointed off toward the east. The others looked and saw what had
+appeared to be a fog rise out of the desert and intervene between them
+and the sun. As far as eye could reach small whirlwinds formed and broke
+and one swept down and covered them with stinging sand. The day became
+darkened and their horses whinnied in terror and the clumps of mesquite
+twisted and turned to the gusts.
+
+Each man knew what was to come upon them and they dismounted, hobbled
+their horses and threw them bodily to the earth, wrapping a blanket
+around the head of each. A rustling as of paper rubbing together became
+noticeable and they threw themselves flat upon the earth, their heads
+wrapped in their coats and buried in the necks of their mounts. For
+an hour they endured the tortures of hell and then, when the storm had
+passed, raised their heads and cursed Creation. Their bodies burned
+as though they had been shot with fine needles and their clothes were
+meshes where once was tough cloth. Even their shoes were perforated and
+the throat of each ached with thirst.
+
+Hopalong fumbled at the canteen resting on his hip and gargled his mouth
+and throat, washing down the sand which wouldn't come up. His friends
+did likewise and then looked around. After some time had elapsed the
+loss of their pack horse was noticed and they swore again. Hopalong took
+the lead in getting his horse ready for service and then rode around in
+a circle half a mile in diameter, but returned empty handed. The horse
+was gone and with it went their main supply of food and drink.
+
+Frenchy scowled at the shadow of a cactus and slowly rode toward the
+northeast, followed closely by his friends. His hand reached for his
+depleted canteen, but refrained--water was to be saved until the last
+minute.
+
+"I'm goin' to build a shack out here an' live in it, I am!" exploded
+Hopalong in withering irony as he dug the sand out of his ears and also
+from his sixshooter. "I just nachurally dotes on this, I do!"
+
+The others were too miserable to even grunt and he neatly severed the
+head of a Gila monster from its scaly body as it opened it venomous jaws
+in rage at this invasion of its territory. "Lovely place!" he sneered.
+
+"You better save them cartridges, Hoppy," interposed Red as his
+companion fired again, feeling that he must say something.
+
+"An' what for?" blazed his friend. "To plug sand storms? Anybody what we
+find on this God-forsaken lay-out won't have to be shot--they will commit
+suicide an' think it's fun! Tell yu what, if them rustlers hangs out on
+this sand range they're better men than I reckons they are. Anybody what
+hides up here shore earns all he steals." Hopalong grumbled from force
+of habit and because no one else would. His companions understood this
+and paid no attention to him, which increased his disgust.
+
+"What are we up here for?" He asked, belligerently. "Why, because them
+Double Arrow idiots can't even watch a desert! We have to do their work
+for them an' they hangs around home an' gets slaughtered! Yes, sir!"
+he shouted, "they can't even take care of themselves when they're in
+line-houses what are forts. Why, that time we cleaned out them an' th'
+C-80 over at Buckskin they couldn't help runnin' into singin' lead!"
+
+"Yes," drawled Red, whose recollection of that fight was vivid. "Yas,
+an' why?" He asked, and then replied to his own question. "Because yu
+sat up in a barn behind them, Buck played his gun on th' side window,
+Pete an' Skinny lay behind a rock to one side of Buck, me an' Lanky
+was across th' Street in front of them, an' Billy an' Johnny was in th'
+arroyo on th' other side. Cowan laid on his stummick on th' roof of his
+place with a buffalo gun, an' the whole blamed town was agin them. There
+wasn't five seconds passed that lead wasn't rippin' through th' walls
+of their shack. Th' Houston House wasn't made for no fort, an' besides,
+they wasn't like th' gang that's punchin' now. That's why."
+
+Hopalong became cheerful again, for here was a chance to differ from his
+friend. The two loved each other the better the more they squabbled.
+
+"Yas!" responded Hopalong with sarcasm. "Yas!" he reiterated, drawling
+it out. "Yu was in front of them, an' with what? Why, an' old,
+white-haired, interfering Winchester, that's what! Me an' my Sharp's--"
+
+"Yu and yore Sharp's!" exploded Red, whose dislike for that rifle was
+very pronounced. "Yu and yore Sharp's."
+
+"Me an' my Sharp's, as I was palaverin' before bein' interrupted,"
+continued Hopalong, "did more damage in five min--"
+
+"Says yu!" snapped Red with heat. "All yu an yore Sharp's could do was
+to cut yore initials in th' back door of their shack, an'----"
+
+"Did more damage in five minutes," continued Hopalong, "than all th'
+blasted Winchesters in th' whole damned town. Why--"
+
+"An' then they was cut blamed poor. Every time that cannon of yourn
+exploded I shore thought th'--"
+
+"Why, Cowan an' his buffalo did more damage (Cowan was reputed to be a
+very poor shot) than yu an--"
+
+"I thought th' artillery was comin' into th' disturbance. I could see
+yore red head--"
+
+"MY red head!" exclaimed Hopalong, sizing up the crimson warlock of his
+companion. "MY red head!" he repeated, and then turned to Frenchy: "Hey,
+Frenchy, who's got th' reddest hair, me or Red?"
+
+Frenchy slowly turned in his saddle and gravely scrutinized them.
+Being strictly impartial and truthful, he gave up the effort of
+differentiating and smiled. "Why, if the tops of yore heads were poked
+through two holes in a board an' I didn't know which was which, I'd
+shore make a mistake if I tried to name 'em"
+
+But Red had the last word. "Anyhow, you didn't have a Sharp's in that
+fight--you had a .45-70 Winchester, just like mine!"
+
+Thereupon the discussion was directed at the judge, and the forenoon
+passed very pleasantly, Frenchy even smiling in his misery.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX. Hopalong's Decision
+
+
+Shortly after noon, Hopalong, who had ridden with his head bowed low in
+meditation, looked up and slapped his thigh. Then he looked at Red and
+grinned.
+
+"Look ahere, Red," he began, "there ain't no rustlers with their
+headquarters on this God-forsaken sand heap, an' there never was. They
+have to have water an' lots of it, too, an' th' nearest of any account
+is th' Pecos, or some of them streams over in th' Panhandle. Th'
+Panhandle is th' best place. There are lots of streams an' lakes over
+there an' they're right in a good grass country. Why, an' army could
+hide over there an' never be found unless it was hunted for blamed good.
+Then, again, it's close to the railroad. Up north aways is th' south
+branch of th' Santa Fe Trail an' it's far enough away not to bother
+anybody in th' middle Panhandle. Then there's Fort Worth purty near,
+an' other trails. Didn't Buck say he had all th' rest of th' country
+searched? He meant th' Pecos Valley an th' Davis Mountains country. All
+th' rustlers would have to do if they were in th' Panhandle would be to
+cross th' Canadian an th' Cimarron an' hit th' trail for th' railroad.
+Good fords, good grass an' water all th' way, cattle fat when they
+are delivered an plenty of room. Th' more I thinks about it th' more I
+cottons to the Panhandle."
+
+"Well, it shore does sound good," replied Red, reflectively.
+
+"Do yu mean th' Cunningham Lake region or farther north?"
+
+"Just th' other side of this blasted desert: anywhere where there's
+water," responded Hopalong, enthusiastically. "I've been doin' some hot
+reckonin' for th' last two hours an' this is th' way it looks to me:
+they drives th' cows up on this skillet for a ways, then turns east an'
+hits th' trail for home an' water. They can get around th' ca on near
+Thatcher's Lake by a swing of th' north. I tell yu that's th' only way
+out'n this. Who could tell where they turned with th' wind raisin' th'
+deuce with the trail? Didn't we follow a trail for a ways, an' then
+what? Why, there wasn't none to follow. We can ride north 'till we walk
+behind ourselves an' never get a peek at them. I am in favor of headin'
+for th' Sulphur Spring Creek district. We can spend a couple of weeks,
+if we has to, an' prospect that whole region without havin' to cut
+our' water down to a smell an' a taste an live on jerked beef. If we
+investigates that country we'll find something else than sand storms,
+poisoned water holes an' blisters."
+
+"Ain't th' Panhandle full of nesters (farmers)?" Inquired Red,
+doubtfully.
+
+"Along th' Canadian an' th' edges, yas; in th' middle, no," explained
+Hopalong. "They hang close together on account of th' war-whoops, an'
+they like th' trails purty well because of there allus bein' somebody
+passin'."
+
+"Buck ought to send some of th' Panhandle boys up there," suggested Red.
+"There's Pie Willis an' th' Jordans--they knows th' Panhandle like yu
+knows poker."
+
+Frenchy had paid no apparent attention to the conversation up to this
+point, but now he declared himself. "Yu heard what Buck said, didn't
+yu?" He asked. "We were told to search th' Staked Plains from one end to
+th' other an' I'm goin' to do it if I can hold out long enough. I ain't
+goin' to palaver with yu because what yu say can't be denied as far as
+wisdom is concerned. Yu may have hit it plumb center, but I knows what
+I was ordered to do, an' yu can't get me to go over there if you shouts
+all night. When Buck says anything, she goes. He wants to know where th'
+cards are stacked an' why he can't holler 'Keno,' an' I'm goin' to find
+out if I can. Yu can go to Patagonia if yu wants to, but yu go alone as
+far as I am concerned."
+
+"Well, it's better if yu don't go with us," replied Hopalong, taking it
+for granted that Red would accompany him. "Yu can prospect this end of
+th' game an' we'll be takin' care of th' other. It's two chances now
+where we only had one afore."
+
+"Yu go east an' I'll hunt around as ordered," responded Frenchy.
+
+"East nothin'," replied Hopalong. "Yu don't get me to wallow in hot
+alkali an' lose time ridin' in ankle-deep sand when I can hit th' south
+trail, skirt th' White Sand Hills an' be in God's country again. I ain't
+goin' to wrastle with no ca on this here trip, none whatever. I'm goin'
+to travel in style, get to Big Spring by ridin' two miles to where I
+could only make one on this stove. Then I'll head north along Sulpher
+Spring Creek an' have water an' grass all th' way, barrin' a few
+stretches. While you are bein' fricasseed I'll be streakin' through
+cottonwood groves an' ridin' in the creek."
+
+"Yu'll have to go alone, then," said Red, resolutely. "Frenchy ain't
+a-goin' to die of lonesomeness on this desert if I knows what I'm about,
+an' I reckon I do, some. Me an' him'll follow out what Buck said, hunt
+around for a while an' then Frenchy can go back to th' ranch to tell
+Buck what's up an' I'll take th' trail yu are a-scared of an' meet yu at
+th' east end of Cunningham Lake three days from now."
+
+"Yu better come with me," coaxed Hopalong, not liking what his friend
+had said about being afraid of the trail past the ca on and wishing to
+have some one with whom to talk on his trip. "I'm goin' to have a nice
+long swim to-morrow night," he added, trying bribery.
+
+"An' I'm goin' to try to keep from hittin' my blisters," responded Red.
+"I don't want to go swimmin' in no creek full of moccasins--I'd rather
+sleep with rattlers or copperheads. Every time I sees a cotton-mouth I
+feels like I had just sit down on one.
+
+"I'll flip a coin to see whether yu comes or not," proposed Hopalong.
+
+"If yu wants to gamble so bad I'll flip yu to see who draws our pay
+next month, but not for what you said," responded Red, choking down the
+desire to try his luck.
+
+Hopalong grinned and turned toward the south. "If I sees Buck afore yu
+do, I'll tell him yu an' Frenchy are growin' watermelons up near Last
+Stand Rock an' are waitin' for rain. Well, so long," he said.
+
+"Yu tell Buck we're obeyin' orders!" shouted Red, sorry that he was not
+going with his bunkie.
+
+Frenchy and Red rode on in silence, the latter feeling strangely
+lonesome, for he and the departed man had seldom been separated when
+journeys like this were to be taken. And when in search of pleasure they
+were nearly always together. Frenchy, while being very friendly with
+Hopalong, a friendship that would have placed them side by side against
+any odds, was not accustomed to his company and did not notice his
+absence.
+
+Red looked off toward the south for the tenth time and for the tenth
+time thought that his friend might return. "He's a son-of-a-gun," he
+soliloquized.
+
+His companion looked up: "He shore is, an' he's right about this rustler
+business, too. But we'll look around for a day or so an' then yu raise
+dust for th' Lake. I'll go back to th' ranch an' get things primed, so
+there'll be no time lost when we get th' word."
+
+"I'm sorry I went an' said what I did about me takin' th' trail he was
+a-scared of," confessed Red, after a pause. "Why, he ain't a-scared of
+nothin'."
+
+"He got back at yu about them watermelons, so what's th' difference?"
+Asked Frenchy. "He don't owe yu nothin'."
+
+An hour later they searched the Devil's Rocks, but found no rustlers.
+Filling their canteens at a tiny spring and allowing their mounts to
+drink the remainder of the water, they turned toward Hell Arroyo, which
+they reached at nightfall. Here, also, their search availed them nothing
+and they paused in indecision. Then Frenchy turned toward his companion
+and advised him to ride toward the Lake in the night when it was
+comparatively cool.
+
+Red considered and then decided that the advice was good. He rolled a
+cigarette, wheeled and faced the east and spurred forward: "So long," he
+called.
+
+"So long," replied Frenchy, who turned toward the south and departed for
+the ranch.
+
+The foreman of the Bar-20 was cleaning his rifle when he heard the
+hoof-beats of a galloping horse and he ran around the corner of the
+house to meet the newcomer, whom he thought to be a courier from the
+Double Arrow. Frenchy dismounted and explained why he returned alone.
+
+Buck listened to the report and then, noting the fire which gleamed in
+his friend's eyes, nodded his approval to the course. "I reckon it's
+Trendley, Frenchy--I've heard a few things since yu left. An' yu can
+bet that if Hopalong an' Red have gone for him he'll be found. I expect
+action any time now, so we'll light th' signal fire." Then he hesitated;
+"Yu light it--yu've been waiting a long time for this."
+
+The balls of smoke which rolled upward were replied to by other balls
+at different points on the plain, and the Bar-20 prepared to feed the
+numbers of hungry punchers who would arrive within the next twenty-four
+hours.
+
+Two hours had not passed when eleven men rode up from the Three
+Triangle, followed eight hours later by ten from the O-Bar-O. The
+outfits of the Star Circle and the Barred Horseshoe, eighteen in all,
+came next and had scarcely dismounted when those of the C-80 and the
+Double Arrow, fretting at the delay, rode up. With the sixteen from
+the Bar-20 the force numbered seventy-five resolute and pugnacious
+cowpunchers, all aching to wipe out the indignities suffered.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX. A Problem Solved
+
+
+Hopalong worried his way out of the desert on a straight line, thus
+cutting in half the distance he had traveled when going into it. He
+camped that night on the sand and early the next morning took up his
+journey. It was noon when he began to notice familiar sights, and an
+hour later he passed within a mile of line-house No. 3, Double Arrow.
+Half an hour later he espied a cow-puncher riding like mad. Thinking
+that an investigation would not be out of place, he rode after the rider
+and overtook him, when that person paused and retraced his course.
+
+"Hullo, Hopalong!" shouted the puncher and he came near enough to
+recognize his pursuer. "Thought yu was farmin' up on th' Staked Plain?"
+
+"Hullo, Pie," replied Hopalong, recognizing Pie Willis. "What was yu
+chasin' so hard?"
+
+"Coyote--damn 'em, but can't they go some? They're gettin' so thick we'll
+shore have to try strichnine an' thin 'em out."
+
+"I thought anybody that had been raised in th' Panhandle would know
+better'n to chase greased lightnin'," rebuked Hopalong. "Yu has got
+about as much show catchin' one of them as a tenderfoot has of bustin'
+an outlawed cayuse."
+
+"Shore; I know it," responded Pie, grinning. "But it's fun seem'
+them hunt th' horizon. What are yu doin' down here an' where are yore
+pardners?"
+
+Thereupon Hopalong enlightened his inquisitive companion as to what had
+occurred and as to his reasons for riding south.
+
+Pie immediately became enthusiastic and announced his intention
+of accompanying Hopalong on his quest, which intention struck that
+gentleman as highly proper and wise. Then Pie hastily turned and
+played at chasing coyotes in the direction of the line-house, where he
+announced that his absence would be accounted for by the fact that
+he and Hopalong were going on a journey of investigation into the
+Panhandle. Billy Jordan who shared with Pie the accommodations of the
+house, objected and showed, very clearly, why he was eminently better
+qualified to take up the proposed labors than his companions. The
+suggestions were fast getting tangled up with the remarks, when Pie,
+grabbing a chunk of jerked beef, leaped into his saddle and absolutely
+refused to heed the calls of his former companion and return. He rode to
+where Hopalong was awaiting him as if he was afraid he wasn't going to
+live long enough to get there. Confiding to his companion that Billy
+was a "locoed sage hen," he led the way along the base of the White Sand
+Hills and asked many questions. Then they turned toward the east and
+galloped hard.
+
+It had been Hopalong's intention to carry out what he had told Red and
+to go to Big Spring first and thence north along Sulphur Spring Creek,
+but to this his guide strongly dissented. There was a short cut, or
+several of them for that matter, was Pie's contention, and any one
+of them would save a day's hard riding. Hopalong made no objection to
+allowing his companion to lead the way over any trail he saw fit, for
+he knew that Pie had been born and brought up in the Panhandle, the
+Cunningham Lake district having been his back yard, as it were. So they
+followed the short cut having the most water and grass, and pounded out
+a lively tattoo as they raced over the stretches of sand which seemed to
+slide beneath them.
+
+"What do yu know about this here business?" Inquired Pie, as they raced
+past a chaparral and onto the edge of a grassy plain.
+
+"Nothin' more'n yu do, only Buck said he thought Slippery Trendley is at
+th' bottom of it."
+
+"What!" ejaculated Pie in surprise. "Him!"
+
+"Yore on. An' between yu an' me an' th' Devil, I wouldn't be a heap
+surprised if Deacon Rankin is with him, neither."
+
+Pie whistled: "Are him an' th' Deacon pals?"
+
+"Shore," replied Hopalong, buttoning up his vest and rolling a
+cigarette. "Didn't they allus hang out together! One watched that
+th' other didn't get plugged from behind. It was a sort of
+yu-scratch-my-back-an'-I'll-scratch-yourn arrangement."
+
+"Well, if they still hangs out together, I know where to hunt for our
+cows," responded Pie. "Th' Deacon used to range along th' headwaters
+of th' Colorado--it ain't far from Cunningham Lake. Thunderation!" he
+shouted, "I knows th' very ground they're on--I can take yu to th' very
+shack!" Then to himself he muttered: "An' that doodlebug Billy Jordan
+thinkin' he knowed more about th' Panhandle than me!"
+
+Hopalong showed his elation in an appropriate manner and his companion
+drank deeply from the proffered flask; Thereupon they treated their
+mounts to liberal doses of strap-oil and covered the ground with great
+speed.
+
+They camped early, for Hopalong was almost worn out from the exertions
+of the past few days and the loss of sleep he had sustained. Pie,
+too excited to sleep and having had unbroken rest for a long period,
+volunteered to keep guard, and his companion eagerly consented.
+
+Early the next morning they broke camp and the evening of the same day
+found them fording Sulphur Spring Creek, and their quarry lay only an
+hour beyond, according to Pie. Then they forded one of the streams which
+form the headwaters of the Colorado, and two hours later they dismounted
+in a cottonwood grove. Picketing their horses, they carefully made their
+way through the timber, which was heavily grown with brush, and, after
+half an hour's maneuvering, came within sight of the further edge.
+
+Dropping down on all fours, they crawled to the last line of brush and
+looked out over an extensive bottoms. At their feet lay a small river,
+and in a clearing on the farther side was a rough camp, consisting of
+about a dozen leanto shacks and log cabins in the main collection, and a
+few scattered cabins along the edge. A huge fire was blazing before
+the main collection of huts, and to the rear of these was an indistinct
+black mass, which they knew to be the corral.
+
+At a rude table before the fire more than a score of men were eating
+supper and others could be heard moving about and talking at different
+points in the background. While the two scouts were learning the lay of
+the land, they saw Mr. Trendley and Deacon Rankin walk out of the cabin
+most distant from the fire, and the latter limped. Then they saw two men
+lying on rude cots, and they wore bandages. Evidently Johnny Redmond had
+scored in his fight.
+
+The odor of burning cowhide came from the corral, accompanied by the
+squeals of cattle, and informed them that brands were being blotted out.
+Hopalong longed to charge down and do some blotting out of another kind,
+but a heavy hand was placed on his shoulder and he silently wormed his
+way after Pie as that person led the way back to the horses. Mounting,
+they picked their way out of the grove and rode over the plain at a
+walk. When far enough away to insure that the noise made by their horses
+would not reach the ears of those in the camp they cantered toward the
+ford they had taken on the way up.
+
+After emerging from the waters of the last forded stream, Pie raised his
+hand and pointed off toward the northwest, telling his companion to
+take that course to reach Cunningham Lake. He himself would ride south,
+taking, for the saving of time, a yet shorter trail to the Double Arrow,
+from where he would ride to Buck. He and the others would meet Hopalong
+and Red at the split rock they had noticed on their way up.
+
+Hopalong shook hands with his guide and watched him disappear into the
+night. He imagined he could still catch whiffs of burning cowhide and
+again the picture of the camp came to his mind. Glancing again at the
+point where Pie had disappeared, he stuffed his sombrero under a strap
+on his saddle and slowly rode toward the lake. A coyote slunk past him
+on a time-destroying lope and an owl hooted at the foolishness of
+men. He camped at the base of a cottonwood and at daylight took up his
+journey after a scanty breakfast from his saddle-bags.
+
+Shortly before noon he came in sight of the lake and looked for his
+friend. He had just ridden around a clump of cotton-woods when he was
+hit on the back with something large and soft. Turning in his saddle,
+with his Colts ready, he saw Red sitting on a stump, a huge grin
+extending over his features. He replaced the weapon, said something
+about fools and dismounted, kicking aside the bundle of grass his friend
+had thrown.
+
+"Yore shore easy," remarked Red, tossing aside his cold cigarette.
+"Suppose I was Trendley, where would yu be now?"
+
+"Diggin' a hole to put yu in," pleasantly replied Hopalong. "If I didn't
+know he wasn't around this part of the country I wouldn't a rode as I
+did."
+
+The man on the stump laughed and rolled a fresh cigarette. Lighting it,
+he inquired where Mr. Trendley was, intimating by his words that the
+rustler had not been found.
+
+"About thirty miles to th' southeast," responded the other. "He's
+figurin' up how much dust he'll have when he gets our cows on th'
+market. Deacon Rankin is with him, too."
+
+"Th' deuce!" exclaimed Red, in profound astonishment.
+
+"Yore right," replied his companion. Then he explained all the
+arrangements and told of the camp.
+
+Red was for riding to the rendezvous at once, but his friend thought
+otherwise and proposed a swim, which met with approval. After enjoying
+themselves in the lake they dressed and rode along the trail Hopalong
+had made in coming for his companion, it being the intention of
+the former to learn more thoroughly the lay of the land immediately
+surrounding the camp. Red was pleased with this, and while they rode
+he narrated all that had taken place since the separation on the Plain,
+adding that he had found the trail left by the rustlers after they had
+quitted the desert and that he had followed it for the last two hours of
+his journey. It was well beaten and an eighth of a mile wide.
+
+At dark they came within sight of the grove and picketed their horses at
+the place used by Pie and Hopalong. Then they moved forward and the same
+sight greeted their eyes that had been seen the night before. Keeping
+well within the edge of the grove and looking carefully for sentries,
+they went entirely around the camp and picked out several places which
+would be of strategic value later on. They noticed that the cabin used
+by Slippery Trendley was a hundred paces from the main collection of
+huts and that the woods came to within a tenth part of that distance
+of its door. It was heavily built, had no windows and faced the wrong
+direction.
+
+Moving on, they discovered the storehouse of the enemy, another tempting
+place. It was just possible, if a siege became necessary, for several
+of the attacking force to slip up to it and either destroy it by fire
+or take it and hold it against all comers. This suggested a look at the
+enemy's water supply, which was the river. A hundred paces separated it
+from the nearest cabin and any rustler who could cross that zone under
+the fire of the besiegers would be welcome to his drink.
+
+It was very evident that the rustlers had no thought of defense,
+thinking, perhaps, that they were immune from attack with such a well
+covered trail between them and their foes. Hopalong mentally accused
+them of harboring suicidal inclinations and returned with his companion
+to the horses. They mounted and sat quietly for a while, and then rode
+slowly away and at dawn reached the split rock, where they awaited the
+arrival of their friends, one sleeping while the other kept guard. Then
+they drew a rough map of the camp, using the sand for paper, and laid
+out the plan of attack.
+
+As the evening of the next day came on they saw Pie, followed by many
+punchers, ride over a rise a mile to the south and they rode out to meet
+him.
+
+When the force arrived at the camp of the two scouts they were shown the
+plan prepared for them. Buck made a few changes in the disposition of
+the men and then each member was shown where he was to go and was told
+why. Weapons were put in a high state of efficiency, canteens were
+refilled and haversacks were somewhat depleted. Then the newcomers
+turned in and slept while Hopalong and Red kept guard.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI. The Call
+
+
+At three o'clock the next morning a long line of men slowly filed
+into the cottonwood grove, being silently swallowed up by the dark.
+Dismounting, they left their horses in the care of three of their number
+and disappeared into the brush. Ten minutes later forty of the force
+were distributed along the edge of the grove fringing on the bank of the
+river and twenty more minutes gave ample time for a detachment of twenty
+to cross the stream and find concealment in the edge of the woods which
+ran from the river to where the corral made an effective barrier on the
+south.
+
+Eight crept down on the western side of the camp and worked their way
+close to Mr. Trendley's cabin door, and the seven who followed this
+detachment continued and took up their positions at the rear of the
+corral, where, it was hoped, some of the rustlers would endeavor to
+escape into the woods by working their way through the cattle in the
+corral and then scaling the stockade wall. These seven were from the
+Three Triangle and the Double Arrow, and they were positive that any
+such attempt would not be a success from the view-point of the rustlers.
+
+Two of those who awaited the pleasure of Mr. Trendley crept forward, and
+a rope swished through the air and settled over the stump which lay most
+convenient on the other side of the cabin door. Then the slack moved
+toward the woods, raised from the ground as it grew taut and, with
+the stump for its axis, swung toward the door, where it rubbed gently
+against the rough logs. It was made of braided horsehair, was half an
+inch in diameter and was stretched eight inches above the ground.
+
+As it touched the door, Lanky Smith, Hopalong and Red stepped out of the
+shelter of the woods and took up their positions behind the cabin, Lanky
+behind the northeast corner where he would be permitted to swing his
+right arm. In his gloved right hand he held the carefully arranged coils
+of a fifty-foot lariat, and should the chief of the rustlers escape
+tripping he would have to avoid the cast of the best roper in the
+southwest.
+
+The two others took the northwest corner and one of them leaned slightly
+forward and gently twitched the tripping-rope. The man at the other end
+felt the signal and whispered to a companion, who quietly disappeared in
+the direction of the river and shortly afterward the mournful cry of a
+whip-poor-will dirged out on the early morning air. It had hardly died
+away when the quiet was broken by one terrific crash of rifles, and the
+two camp guards asleep at the fire awoke in another world.
+
+Mr. Trendley, sleeping unusually well for the unjust, leaped from his
+bed to the middle of the floor and alighted on his feet and wide
+awake. Fearing that a plot was being consummated to deprive him of his
+leadership, he grasped the Winchester which leaned at the head of his
+bed and, tearing open the door, crashed headlong to the earth. As he
+touched the ground, two shadows sped out from the shelter of the cabin
+wall and pounced upon him. Men who can rope, throw and tie a wild steer
+in thirty seconds flat do not waste time in trussing operations, and
+before a minute had elapsed he was being carried into the woods,
+bound and helpless. Lanky sighed, threw the rope over one shoulder and
+departed after his friends.
+
+When Mr. Trendley came to his senses he found himself bound to a tree in
+the grove near the horses. A man sat on a stump not far from him, three
+others were seated around a small fire some distance to the north, and
+four others, one of whom carried a rope, made their way into the brush.
+He strained at his bonds, decided that the effort was useless and
+watched the man on the stump, who struck a match and lit a pipe. The
+prisoner watched the light flicker up and go out and there was left in
+his mind a picture that he could never forget. The face which had been
+so cruelly, so grotesquely revealed was that of Frenchy McAllister, and
+across his knees lay a heavy caliber Winchester. A curse escaped from
+the lips of the outlaw; the man on the stump spat at a firefly and
+smiled.
+
+From the south came the crack of rifles, incessant and sharp. The
+reports rolled from one end of the clearing to the other and seemed to
+sweep in waves from the center of the line to the ends. Faintly in the
+infrequent lulls in the firing came an occasional report from the rear
+of the corral, where some desperate rustler paid for his venture.
+
+Buck went along the line and spoke to the riflemen, and after some time
+had passed and the light had become stronger, he collected the men into
+groups of five and six. Taking one group and watching it closely, it
+could be seen that there was a world of meaning in this maneuver. One
+man started firing at a particular window in an opposite hut and then
+laid aside his empty gun and waited. When the muzzle of his enemy's gun
+came into sight and lowered until it had nearly gained its sight level,
+the rifles of the remainder of the group crashed out in a volley and
+usually one of the bullets, at least, found its intended billet. This
+volley firing became universal among the besiegers and the effect was
+marked.
+
+Two men sprinted from the edge of the woods near Mr. Trendley's cabin
+and gained the shelter of the storehouse, which soon broke out in
+flames. The burning brands fell over the main collection of huts, where
+there was much confusion and swearing. The early hour at which the
+attack had been delivered at first led the besieged to believe that
+it was an Indian affair, but this impression was soon corrected by the
+volley firing, which turned hope into despair. It was no great matter
+to fight Indians, that they had done many times and found more or less
+enjoyment in it; but there was a vast difference between brave and
+puncher, and the chances of their salvation became very small. They
+surmised that it was the work of the cow-men on whom they had preyed
+and that vengeful punchers lay hidden behind that death-fringe of green
+willow and hazel.
+
+Red, assisted by his inseparable companion, Hopalong, laboriously
+climbed up among the branches of a black walnut and hooked one leg over
+a convenient limb. Then he lowered his rope and drew up the Winchester
+which his accommodating friend fastened to it. Settling himself in a
+comfortable position and sheltering his body somewhat by the tree, he
+shaded his eyes by a hand and peered into the windows of the distant
+cabins.
+
+"How is she, Red?" Anxiously inquired the man on the ground.
+
+"Bully: want to come up?"
+
+"Nope. I'm goin' to catch yu when yu lets go," replied Hopalong with a
+grin.
+
+"Which same I ain't goin' to," responded the man in the tree.
+
+He swung his rifle out over a forked limb and let it settle in the
+crotch. Then he slew his head around until he gained the bead he wished.
+Five minutes passed before he caught sight of his man and then he fired.
+Jerking out the empty shell he smiled and called out to his friend:
+"One."
+
+Hopalong grinned and went off to tell Buck to put all the men in trees.
+
+Night came on and still the firing continued. Then an explosion shook
+the woods. The storehouse had blown up and a sky full of burning timber
+fell on the cabins and soon three were half consumed, their occupants
+dropping as they gained the open air. One hundred paces makes fine
+pot-shooting, as Deacon Rankin discovered when evacuation was the choice
+necessary to avoid cremation. He never moved after he touched the ground
+and Red called out: "Two," not knowing that his companion had departed.
+
+The morning of the next day found a wearied and hopeless garrison, and
+shortly before noon a soiled white shirt was flung from a window in the
+nearest cabin. Buck ran along the line and ordered the firing to cease
+and caused to be raised an answering flag of truce. A full minute
+passed and then the door slowly opened and a leg protruded, more slowly
+followed by the rest of the man, and Cheyenne Charley strode out to
+the bank of the river and sat down. His example was followed by several
+others and then an unexpected event occurred. Those in the cabins who
+preferred to die fighting, angered at this desertion, opened fire on
+their former comrades, who barely escaped by rolling down the slightly
+inclined bank into the river. Red fired again and laughed to himself.
+Then the fugitives swam down the river and landed under the guns of the
+last squad. They were taken to the rear and, after being bound, were
+placed under a guard. There were seven in the party and they looked worn
+out.
+
+When the huts were burning the fiercest the uproar in the corral arose
+to such a pitch as to drown all other sounds. There were left within its
+walls a few hundred cattle whose brands had not yet been blotted out,
+and these, maddened to frenzy by the shooting and the flames, tore from
+one end of the enclosure to the other, crashing against the alternate
+walls with a noise which could be heard far out on the plain. Scores
+were trampled to death on each charge and finally the uproar subsided
+in sheer want of cattle left with energy enough to continue. When the
+corral was investigated the next day there were found the bodies of four
+rustlers, but recognition was impossible.
+
+Several of the defenders were housed in cabins having windows in the
+rear walls, which the occupants considered fortunate. This opinion
+was revised, however, after several had endeavored to escape by these
+openings. The first thing that occurred when a man put his head out was
+the hum of a bullet, and in two cases the experimenters lost all need of
+escape.
+
+The volley firing had the desired effect, and at dusk there remained
+only one cabin from which came opposition. Such a fire was concentrated
+on it that before an hour had passed the door fell in and the firing
+ceased. There was a rush from the side, and the Barred Horseshoe men
+who swarmed through the cabins emerged without firing a shot. The
+organization that had stirred up the Pecos Valley ranches had ceased to
+exist.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII. The Showdown
+
+
+A fire burned briskly in front of Mr. Trendley's cabin that night and
+several punchers sat around it occupied in various ways. Two men leaned
+against the wall and sang softly of the joys of the trail and the range.
+One of them, Lefty Allen, of the O-Bar-O, sang in his sweet tenor, and
+other men gradually strolled up and seated themselves on the ground,
+where the fitful gleam of responsive pipes and cigarettes showed like
+fireflies. The songs followed one after another, first a lover's plea in
+soft Spanish and then a rollicking tale of the cow-towns and men. Supper
+had long since been enjoyed and all felt that life was, indeed, well
+worth living.
+
+A shadow loomed against the cabin wall and a procession slowly made its
+way toward the open door. The leader, Hopalong, disappeared within and
+was followed by Mr. Trendley, bound and hobbled and tied to Red, the
+rear being brought up by Frenchy, whose rifle lolled easily in the
+crotch of his elbow. The singing went on uninterrupted and the hum of
+voices between the selections remained unchanged. Buck left the crowd
+around the fire and went into the cabin, where his voice was heard
+assenting to something. Hopalong emerged and took a seat at the fire,
+sending two punchers to take his place. He was joined by Frenchy and
+Red, the former very quiet.
+
+In the center of a distant group were seven men who were not armed.
+Their belts, half full of cartridges, supported empty holsters. They sat
+and talked to the men around them, swapping notes and experiences, and
+in several instances found former friends and acquaintances. These men
+were not bound and were apparently members of Buck's force. Then one of
+them broke down, but quickly regained his nerve and proposed a game
+of cards. A fire was started and several games were immediately in
+progress. These seven men were to die at daybreak.
+
+As the night grew older man after man rolled himself in his blanket
+and lay down where he sat, sinking off to sleep with a swiftness that
+bespoke tired muscles and weariness. All through the night, however,
+there were twelve men on guard, of whom three were in the cabin.
+
+At daybreak a shot from one of the guards awakened every man within
+hearing, and soon they romped and scampered down to the river's edge
+to indulge in the luxury of a morning plunge. After an hour's horseplay
+they trooped back to the cabin and soon had breakfast out of the way.
+
+Waffles, foreman of the O-Bar-O, and You-bet Somes strolled over to the
+seven unfortunates who had just completed a choking breakfast and nodded
+a hearty "Good morning." Then others came up and finally all moved off
+toward the river. Crossing it, they disappeared into the grove and all
+sounds of their advance grew into silence.
+
+Mr. Trendley, escorted outside for the air, saw the procession as it
+became lost to sight in the brush. He sneered and asked for a smoke,
+which was granted. Then his guards were changed and the men began to
+straggle back from the grove.
+
+Mr. Trendley, with his back to the cabin, scowled defiantly at the crowd
+that hemmed him in. The coolest, most damnable murderer in the West was
+not now going to beg for mercy. When he had taken up crime as a means
+of livelihood he had decided that if the price to be paid for his course
+was death, he would pay like a man. He glanced at the cottonwood grove,
+wherein were many ghastly secrets, and smiled. His hairless eyebrows
+looked like livid scars and his lips quivered in scorn and anger.
+
+As he sneered at Buck there was a movement in the crowd before him and a
+pathway opened for Frenchy, who stepped forward slowly and deliberately,
+as if on his way to some bar for a drink. There was something different
+about the man who had searched the Staked Plain with Hopalong and Red:
+he was not the same puncher who had arrived from Montana three weeks
+before. There was lacking a certain air of carelessness and he chilled
+his friends, who looked upon him as if they had never really known him.
+He walked up to Mr. Trendley and gazed deeply into the evil eyes.
+
+Twenty years before, Frenchy McAllister had changed his identity from
+a happy-go-lucky, devil-may-care cow-puncher and became a machine. The
+grief that had torn his soul was not of the kind which seeks its outlet
+in tears and wailing; it had turned and struck inward, and now his
+deliberate ferocity was icy and devilish. Only a glint in his eyes told
+of exultation, and his words were sharp and incisive; one could well
+imagine one heard the click of his teeth as they bit off the consonants:
+every letter was clear-cut, every syllable startling in its clearness.
+
+"Twenty years and two months ago to-day," he began, "you arrived at the
+ranchhouse of the Double Y, up near the Montana-Wyoming line. Everything
+was quiet, except, perhaps, a woman's voice, singing. You entered, and
+before you left you pinned a note to that woman's dress. I found it, and
+it is due."
+
+The air of carelessness disappeared from the members of the crowd and
+the silence became oppressive. Most of those present knew parts of
+Frenchy's story, and all were in hearty accord with anything he might
+do. He reached within his vest and brought forth a deerskin bag. Opening
+it, he drew out a package of oiled silk and from that he took a paper.
+Carefully replacing the silk and the bag, he slowly unfolded the sheet
+in his hand and handed it to Buck, whose face hardened. Two decades had
+passed since the foreman of the Bar-20 had seen that precious sheet, but
+the scene of its finding would never fade from his memory. He stood as
+if carved from stone, with a look on his face that made the crowd shift
+uneasily and glance at Trendley.
+
+Frenchy turned to the rustler and regarded him evilly. "You are the
+hellish brute that wrote that note," pointing to the paper in the hand
+of his friend. Then, turning again, he spoke: "Buck, read that paper."
+
+The foreman cleared his throat and read distinctly:
+
+
+"McAllister: Yore wife is too blame good to live.
+
+                                         TRENDLEY."
+
+
+There was a shuffling sound, but Buck and Frenchy, silently backed up by
+Hopalong and Red, intervened, and the crowd fell back, where it surged
+in indecision.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Frenchy, "I want you to vote on whether any man here
+has more right to do with Slippery Trendley as he sees fit than myself.
+Any one who thinks so, or that he should be treated like the others,
+step forward. Majority rules."
+
+There was no advance and he spoke again: "Is there any one here who
+objects to this man dying?"
+
+Hopalong and Red awkwardly bumped their knuckles against their guns and
+there was no response.
+
+The prisoner was bound with cowhide to the wall of the cabin and four
+men sat near and facing him. The noonday meal was eaten in silence, and
+the punchers rode off to see about rounding up the cattle that grazed
+over the plain as far as eye could see. Supper-time came and passed,
+and busy men rode away in all directions. Others came and relieved the
+guards, and at midnight another squad took up the vigil.
+
+Day broke and the thunder of hoofs as the punchers rounded up the cattle
+became very noticeable. One herd swept past toward the south, guarded
+and guided by fifteen men. Two hours later and another followed, taking
+a slightly different trail so as to avoid the close-cropped grass left
+by the first. At irregular intervals during the day other herds swept
+by, until six had passed and denuded the plain of cattle.
+
+Buck, perspiring and dusty, accompanied by Hopalong and Red, rode up
+to where the guards smoked and joked. Frenchy came out of the cabin
+and smiled at his friends. Swinging in his left hand was a newly filled
+Colt's .45, which was recognized by his friends as the one found in the
+cabin and it bore a rough "T" gouged in the butt.
+
+Buck looked around and cleared his throat: "We've got th' cows on th'
+home trail, Frenchy," he suggested.
+
+"Yas?" Inquired Frenchy. "Are there many?"
+
+"Yas," replied Buck, waving his hand at the guards, ordering them to
+follow their friends. "It's a good deal for us: we've done right smart
+this hand. An' it's a good thing we've got so many punchers: we got a
+lot of cattle to drive."
+
+"About five times th' size of th' herd that blamed near made angels
+out'en me an' yu," responded Frenchy with a smile.
+
+"I hope almighty hard that we don't have no stampedes on this here
+drive. If th' last herds go wild they'll pick up th' others, an' then
+there'll be th' devil to pay."
+
+Frenchy smiled again and shot a glance at where Mr. Trendley was bound
+to the cabin wall.
+
+Buck looked steadily southward for some time and then flecked a foam-sud
+from the flank of his horse. "We are goin' south along th' Creek until
+we gets to Big Spring, where we'll turn right smart to th' west. We
+won't be able to average more'n twelve miles a day, 'though I'm goin' to
+drive them hard. How's yore grub?"
+
+"Grub to burn."
+
+"Got yore rope?" Asked the foreman of the Bar-20, speaking as if the
+question had no especial meaning.
+
+Frenchy smiled: "Yes."
+
+Hopalong absent-mindedly jabbed his spurs into his mount with the result
+that when the storm had subsided the spell was broken and he said "So
+long," and rode south, followed by Buck and Red. As they swept out of
+sight behind a grove Red turned in his saddle and waved his hat. Buck
+discussed with assiduity the prospects of a rainfall and was very
+cheerful about the recovery of the stolen cattle. Red could see a tall,
+broad-shouldered man standing with his feet spread far apart, swinging a
+Colt's .45, and Hopalong swore at everything under the sun. Dust arose in
+streaming clouds far to the south and they spurred forward to overtake
+the outfits.
+
+Buck Peters, riding over the starlit plain, in his desire to reach the
+first herd, which slept somewhere to the west of him under the care
+of Waffles, thought of the events of the past few weeks and gradually
+became lost in the memories of twenty years before, which crowded up
+before his mind like the notes of a half-forgotten song. His nature,
+tempered by two decades of a harsh existence, softened as he lived again
+the years that had passed and as he thought of the things which had
+been. He was so completely lost in his reverie that he failed to hear
+the muffled hoofbeats of a horse that steadily gained upon him, and when
+Frenchy McAllister placed a friendly hand on his shoulder he started as
+if from a deep sleep.
+
+The two looked at each other and their hands met. The question which
+sprang into Buck's eyes found a silent answer in those of his friend.
+They rode on side by side through the clear night and together drifted
+back to the days of the Double Y.
+
+After an hour had passed, the foreman of the Bar-20 turned to his
+companion and then hesitated:
+
+"Did, did--was he a cur?"
+
+Frenchy looked off toward the south and, after an interval, replied:
+"Yas." Then, as an after thought, he added, "Yu see, he never reckoned
+it would be that way."
+
+Buck nodded, although he did not fully understand, and the subject was
+forever closed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII. Mr. Cassidy Meets a Woman
+
+
+The work of separating the cattle into herds of the different brands
+was not a big contract, and with so many men it took but a comparatively
+short time, and in two days all signs of the rustlers had faded. It was
+then that good news went the rounds and the men looked forward to a
+week of pleasure, which was all the sharper accentuated by the grim
+mercilessness of the expedition into the Panhandle. Here was a chance
+for unlimited hilarity and a whole week in which to give strict
+attention to celebrating the recent victory.
+
+So one day Mr. Hopalong Cassidy rode rapidly over the plain, thinking
+about the joys and excitement promised by the carnival to be held
+at Muddy Wells. With that rivalry so common to Western towns the
+inhabitants maintained that the carnival was to break all records, this
+because it was to be held in their town. Perry's Bend and Buckskin had
+each promoted a similar affair, and if this year's festivities were
+to be an improvement on those which had gone before, they would
+most certainly be worth riding miles to see. Perry's Bend had been
+unfortunate m being the first to hold a carnival, inasmuch as it only
+set a mark to be improved upon, and Buckskin had taken advantage of this
+and had added a brass band, and now in turn was to be eclipsed.
+
+The events slated were numerous and varied, the most important being
+those which dealt directly with the everyday occupations of the
+inhabitants of that section of the country. Broncho busting,
+steer-roping and tying, rifle and revolver shooting, trick riding and
+fancy roping made up the main features of the programme and were to
+be set off by horse and foot racing and other county fair necessities.
+Altogether, the proud citizens of the town looked forward with keen
+anticipation to the coming excitements, and were prone to swagger a
+bit and to rub their hands in condescending egoism, while the crowded
+gambling halls and saloons, and the three-card-monte men on the street
+corners enriched themselves at the cost of venturesome know-it-ails.
+
+Hopalong was firmly convinced that his day of hard riding was well worth
+while, for the Bar-20 was to be represented in strength. Probably
+a clearer insight into his idea of a carnival can be gained by his
+definition, grouchily expressed to Red Connors on the day following the
+last affair: "Raise cain, go broke, wake up an' begin punching cows
+all over again." But that was the day after and the day after is always
+filled with remorse.
+
+Hopalong and Red, having twice in succession won the revolver and rifle
+competitions, respectively, hoped to make it 'Three straight.' Lanky
+Smith, the Bar-20 rope expert, had taken first prize in the only contest
+he had entered. Skinny Thompson had lost and drawn with Lefty Allen, of
+the O-Bar-O, in the broncho-busting event, but as Skinny had improved
+greatly in the interval, his friends confidently expected him to "yank
+first place" for the honor of his ranch. These expectations were backed
+with all the available Bar-20 money, and, if they were not realized,
+something in the nature of a calamity would swoop down upon and wrap
+that ranch in gloom. Since the O-Bar-O was aggressively optimistic the
+betting was at even money, hats and guns, and the losers would begin
+life anew so far as earthly possessions were concerned. No other
+competitors were considered in this event, as Skinny and Lefty had so
+far outclassed all others that the honor was believed to lie between
+these two.
+
+Hopalong, blissfully figuring out the chances of the different
+contestants, galloped around a clump of mesquite only fifteen miles from
+Muddy Wells and stiffened in his saddle, for twenty rods ahead of him on
+the trail was a woman. As she heard him approach she turned and waited
+for him to overtake her, and when she smiled he raised his sombrero and
+bowed.
+
+"Will you please tell me where I am?" She asked.
+
+"Yu are fifteen miles southeast of Muddy Wells," he replied.
+
+"But which is southeast?"
+
+"Right behind yu," he answered. "Th' town lies right ahead."
+
+"Are you going there?" She asked.
+
+"Yes, ma'am."
+
+"Then you will not care if I ride with you?" She asked. "I am a trifle
+frightened."
+
+"Why, I'd be some pleased if yu do, 'though there ain't nothing out here
+to be afraid of now."
+
+"I had no intention of getting lost," she assured him, "but I dismounted
+to pick flowers and cactus leaves and after a while I had no conception
+of where I was."
+
+"How is it yu are out here?" He asked. "Yu shouldn't get so far from
+town."
+
+"Why, papa is an invalid and doesn't like to leave his room, and the
+town is so dull, although the carnival is waking it up somewhat. Having
+nothing to do I procured a horse and determined to explore the country.
+Why, this is like Stanley and Livingstone, isn't it? You rescued the
+explorer!" And she laughed heartily. He wondered who in thunder Stanley
+and Livingstone were, but said nothing.
+
+"I like the West, it is so big and free," she continued. "But it is very
+monotonous at times, especially when compared with New York. Papa
+swears dreadfully at the hotel and declares that the food will drive him
+insane, but I notice that he eats much more heartily than he did when
+in the city. And the service!--it is awful. But when one leaves the town
+behind it is splendid, and I can appreciate it because I had such a hard
+season in the city last winter--so many balls, parties and theaters that
+I simply wore myself out."
+
+"I never hankered much for them things," Hopalong replied. "An' I don't
+like th' towns much, either. Once or twice a year I gets as far as
+Kansas City, but I soon tires of it an' hits th' back trail. Yu see, I
+don't like a fence country--I wants lots of room an' air."
+
+She regarded him intently: "I know that you will think me very forward."
+
+He smiled and slowly replied: "I think yu are all O. K."
+
+"There do not appear to be many women in this country," she suggested.
+
+"No, there ain't many," he replied, thinking of the kind to be found
+in all of the cow-towns. "They don't seem to hanker for this kind of
+life--they wants parties an' lots of dancin' an' them kind of things. I
+reckon there ain't a whole lot to tempt em to come.
+
+"You evidently regard women as being very frivolous," she replied.
+
+"Well, I'm speakin' from there not being any out here," he responded,
+"although I don't know much about them, to tell th' truth. Them what are
+out here can't be counted." Then he flushed and looked away.
+
+She ignored the remark and placed her hand to her hair:
+
+"Goodness! My hair must look terrible!"
+
+He turned and looked: "Yore hair is pretty--I allus did like brown hair."
+
+She laughed and put back the straggling locks: "It is terrible! Just
+look at it! Isn't it awful?"
+
+"Why, no: I reckons not," he replied critically. "It looks sort of free
+an' easy thataway."
+
+"Well, it's no matter, it cannot be helped," she laughed. "Let's race!"
+she cried and was off like a shot.
+
+He humored her until he saw that her mount was getting unmanageable,
+when he quietly overtook her and closed her pony's nostrils with his
+hand, the operation having a most gratifying effect.
+
+"Joe hadn't oughter let yu had this cayuse," he said.
+
+"Why, how do you know of whom I procured it?" She asked. "By th' brand:
+it's a O-Bar-O, canceled, with J. H. over it. He buys all of his cayuses
+from th' O-Bar-O."
+
+She found out his name, and, after an interval of silence, she turned to
+him with eyes full of inquiry: "What is that thorny shrub just ahead?"
+She asked.
+
+"That's mesquite," he replied eagerly.
+
+"Tell me all about it," she commanded.
+
+"Why, there ain't much to tell," he replied, "only it's a valuable tree
+out here. Th' Apaches use it a whole lot of ways. They get honey from
+th' blossoms an' glue an' gum, an' they use th' bark for tannin' hide.
+Th' dried pods an' leaves are used to feed their cattle, an' th' wood
+makes corrals to keep 'em in. They use th' wood for making other things,
+too, an' it is of two colors. Th' sap makes a dye what won't wash out,
+an' th' beans make a bread what won't sour or get hard. Then it makes a
+barrier that shore is a dandy-coyotes an' men can't get through it, an'
+it protects a whole lot of birds an' things. Th' snakes hate it like
+poison, for th' thorns get under their scales an' whoops things up for
+'em. It keeps th' sand from shiftin', too. Down South where there is
+plenty of water, it often grows forty feet high, but up here it squats
+close to th' ground so it can save th' moisture. In th' night th'
+temperature sometimes falls thirty degrees, an' that helps it, too."
+
+"How can it live without water?" She asked.
+
+"It gets all th' water it wants," he replied, smiling. "Th' tap roots
+go straight down 'til they find it, sometimes fifty feet. That's why it
+don't shrivel up in th' sun. Then there are a lot of little roots right
+under it an' they protects th' tap roots. Th' shade it gives is th'
+coolest out here, for th' leaves turn with th' wind an' lets th' breeze
+through-they're hung on little stems."
+
+"How splendid!" she exclaimed. "Oh! Look there!" she cried, pointing
+ahead of them. A chaparral cock strutted from its decapitated enemy, a
+rattlesnake, and disappeared in the chaparral.
+
+Hopalong laughed: "Mr. Scissors-bill Road-runner has great fun with
+snakes. He runs along th' sand-an' he can run, too--an' sees a snake
+takin' a siesta. Snip! goes his bill an' th' snake slides over th'
+Divide. Our fighting friend may stop some coyote's appetite before
+morning, though, unless he stays where he is."
+
+Just then a gray wolf blundered in sight a few rods ahead of them, and
+Hopalong fired instantly. His companion shrunk from him and looked at
+him reproachfully.
+
+"Why did you do that!" she demanded.
+
+"Why, because they costs us big money every year," he replied. "There's
+a bounty on them because they pull down calves, an' sometimes full grown
+cows. I'm shore wonderin' why he got so close--they're usually just out
+of range, where they stays."
+
+"Promise me that you will shoot no more while I am with you.
+
+"Why, shore: I didn't think yu'd care," he replied. "Yu are like that
+sky-pilot over to Las Cruces--he preached agin killin' things, which is
+all right for him, who didn't have no cows."
+
+"Do you go to the missions?" She asked.
+
+He replied that he did, sometimes, but forgot to add that it was usually
+for the purpose of hilarity, for he regarded sky-pilots with humorous
+toleration.
+
+"Tell me all about yourself--what you do for enjoyment and all about your
+work," she requested.
+
+He explained in minute detail the art of punching cows, and told her
+more of the West in half an hour than she could have learned from a
+year's experience. She showed such keen interest in his words that it
+was a pleasure to talk to her, and he monopolized the conversation until
+the town intruded its sprawling collection of unpainted shacks and adobe
+huts in their field of vision.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV. The Strategy of Mr. Peters
+
+
+Hopalong and his companion rode into Muddy Wells at noon, and Red
+Connors, who leaned with Buck Peters against the side of Tom Lee's
+saloon, gasped his astonishment. Buck looked twice to be sure, and then
+muttered incredulously: "What th' heck!" Red repeated the phrase and
+retreated within the saloon, while Buck stood his ground, having
+had much experience with women, inasmuch as he had narrowly escaped
+marrying. He thought that he might as well get all the information
+possible, and waited for an introduction. It was in vain, however, for
+the two rode past without noticing him.
+
+Buck watched them turn the corner and then called for Red to come out,
+but that person, fearing an ordeal, made no reply and the foreman went
+in after him. The timorous one was corraling bracers at the bar and
+nearly swallowed down the wrong channel when Buck placed a heavy hand on
+his broad shoulder.
+
+"G'way!" remarked Red. "I don't want no introduction, none whatever," he
+asserted. "G'way!" he repeated, backing off suspiciously.
+
+"Better wait 'til yu are asked," suggested Buck. "Better wait 'til yu
+sees th' rope afore yu duck." Then he laughed: "Yu bashful fellers make
+me plumb disgusted. Why, I've seen yu face a bunch of guns an never turn
+a hair, an' here yore all in because yu fear yu'll have to stand
+around an' hide yore hands. She won't bite yu. Anyway, from what I saw,
+Hopalong is due to be her grub--he never saw me at all, th' chump."
+
+"He shore didn't see me, none," replied Red with distinct relief. "Are
+they gone?"
+
+"Shore," answered Buck. "An' if they wasn't they wouldn't see us, not
+if we stood in front of them an' yelled. She's a hummer-stands two hands
+under him an' is a whole lot prettier than that picture Cowan has got
+over his bar. There's nothing th' matter with his eyesight, but he's
+plumb locoed, all th' same. He'll go an' get stuck on her an' then
+she'll hit th' trail for home an' mamma, an' he won't be worth his feed
+for a year." Then he paused in consternation: "Thunder, Red: he's got to
+shoot to-morrow!"
+
+"Well, suppose he has?" Responded Red. "I don't reckon she'll stampede
+his gun-play none.
+
+"Yu don't reckon, eh?" Queried Buck with much irony. "No, an' that's
+what's th' matter with yu. Why, do yu expect to see him to-morrow? Yu
+won't if I knows him an' I reckon I do. Nope, he'll be follerin' her all
+around."
+
+"He's got sand to burn," remarked Red in awe. "Wonder how he got to know
+her?"
+
+"Yu can gamble she did th' introducing part--he ain't got th' nerve to
+do it himself. He saved her life, or she thinks he did, or some romantic
+nonsense like that. So yu better go around an' get him away, an' keep
+him away, too."
+
+"Who, me?" Inquired Red in indignation. "Me go around an' tote him off?
+I ain't no wagon: yu go, or send Johnny."
+
+"Johnny would say something real pert an' get knocked into th' middle
+of next week for it. He won't do, so I reckon yu better go yoreself,"
+responded Buck, smiling broadly and moving off.
+
+"Hey, yu! Wait a minute!" cried Red in consternation. Buck paused and
+Red groped for an excuse: "Why don't you send Billy?" He blurted in
+desperation.
+
+The foreman's smile assumed alarming proportions and he slapped his
+thigh in joy: "Good boy!" he laughed. "Billy's th' man--good Lord, but
+won't he give Cupid cold feet! Rustle around an' send th' pessimistic
+soul to me."
+
+Red, grinning and happy, rapidly visited door after door, shouted, "Hey,
+Billy!" and proceeded to the next one. He was getting pugnacious at
+his lack of success when he espied Mr. Billy Williams tacking along the
+accidental street as if he owned it. Mr. Williams was executing fancy
+steps and was trying to sing many songs at once.
+
+Red stopped and grabbed his bibulous friend as that person veered to
+starboard: "Yore a peach of a life-preserver, yu are!" he exclaimed.
+
+Billy balanced himself, swayed back and forth and frowned his
+displeasure at this unwarranted action: "I ain't no wife-deserter!" he
+shouted. "Unrope me an' give me th' trail! No tenderfoot can ride me!"
+Then he recognized his friend and grinned joyously: "Shore I will, but
+only one. Jus' one more, jus' one more. Yu see, m'friend, it was all
+Jimmy's fault. He--"
+
+Red secured a chancery hold and dragged his wailing and remonstrating
+friend to Buck, who frowned with displeasure.
+
+"This yere," said Red in belligerent disgust, "is th' dod-blasted hero
+what's a-goin' to save Hopalong from a mournful future. What are we
+a-goin' to do?"
+
+Buck slipped the Colt's from Billy's holster and yanked the erring one
+to his feet: "Fill him full of sweet oil, source him in th' trough, walk
+him around for awhile an' see what it does," he ordered.
+
+Two hours later Billy walked up to his foreman and weakly asked what was
+wanted. He looked as though he had just been released from a six-months'
+stay in a hospital.
+
+"Yu go over to th' hotel an' find Hopalong," said the foreman sternly.
+"Stay with him all th' time, for there is a plot on foot to wing him on
+th' sly. If yu ain't mighty spry he'll be dead by night."
+
+Having delivered the above instructions and prevarications, Buck
+throttled the laugh which threatened to injure him and scowled at Red,
+who again fled into the saloon for fear of spoiling it all with revealed
+mirth.
+
+The convalescent stared in open-mouthed astonishment:
+
+"What's he doin' in th' hotel, an' who's goin' to plug him?" He asked.
+
+"Yu leave that to me," replied Buck, "All yu has to do is to get on th'
+job with yore gun," handing the weapon to him, "an' freeze to him like
+a flea on a cow. Mebby there'll be a woman in th' game, but that ain't
+none of yore funeral--yu do what I said."
+
+"Blast th' women!" exploded Billy, moving off. When he had entered the
+hotel Buck went in to Red.
+
+"For Pete's sake!" moaned that person in senseless reiteration. "Th'
+Lord help Billy! Holy Mackinaw!" he shouted. "Gimme a drink an' let me
+tell th' boys."
+
+The members of the outfit were told of the plot and they gave their
+uproarious sanction, all needing bracers to sustain them.
+
+Billy found the clerk swapping lies with the bartender and, procuring
+the desired information, climbed the stairs and hunted for room No. 6.
+Discovering it, he dispensed with formality, pushed open the door and
+entered.
+
+He found his friend engaged in conversation with a pretty young
+woman, and on a couch at the far side of the room lay an elderly
+white-whiskered gentleman who was reading a magazine. Billy felt like a
+criminal for a few seconds and then there came to him the thought that
+his was a mission of great import and he braced himself to face any
+ordeal. "Anyway," he thought, "th' prettier they are th' more dust they
+can raise."
+
+"What are yu doing here?" Cried Hopalong in amazement.
+
+"That's all right," averred the protector, confidentially.
+
+"What's all right?"
+
+"Why, everything," replied Billy, feeling uncomfortable.
+
+The elderly man hastily sat up and dropped his magazine when he saw
+the armed intruder, his eyes as wide open as his mouth. He felt for
+his spectacles, but did not need them, for he could see nothing but the
+Colt's which Billy jabbed at him.
+
+"None of that!" snapped Billy. "'ands up!" he ordered, and the hands went
+up so quick that when they stopped the jerk shook the room. Peering over
+the gentleman's leg, Billy saw the spectacles and backed to the wall
+as he apologized: "It's shore on me, Stranger--I reckoned yu was
+contemplatin' some gun-play."
+
+Hopalong, blazing with wrath, arose and shoved Billy toward the hail,
+when Mr. Johnny Nelson, oozing fight and importance, intruded his person
+into the zone of action.
+
+"Lord!" ejaculated the newcomer, staring at the vision of female
+loveliness which so suddenly greeted him. "Mamma," he added under his
+breath. Then he tore off his sombrero: "Come out of this, Billy, yu
+chump!" he exploded, backing toward the door, being followed by the
+protector.
+
+Hopalong slammed the door and turned to his hostess, apologizing for the
+disturbance.
+
+"Who are they?" Palpitated Miss Deane.
+
+"What the deuce are they doing up here!" blazed her father. Hopalong
+disclaimed any knowledge of them and just then Billy opened the door and
+looked in.
+
+"There he is again!" cried Miss Deane, and her father gasped. Hopalong
+ran out into the hall and narrowly missed kicking Billy into Kingdom
+Come as that person slid down the stairs, surprised and indignant.
+
+Mr. Billy Williams, who sat at the top of the stairs, was feeling hungry
+and thirsty when he saw his friend, Mr. Pete Wilson, the slow witted,
+approaching.
+
+"Hey, Pete," he called, "come up here an' watch this door while I
+rustles some grub. Keep yore eyes open," he cautioned.
+
+As Pete began to feel restless the door opened and a dignified gentleman
+with white whiskers came out into the hall and then retreated with great
+haste and no dignity. Pete got the drop on the door and waited. Hopalong
+yanked it open and kissed the muzzle of the weapon before he could stop,
+and Pete grinned.
+
+"Coming to th' fight?" He loudly asked. "It's going to be a shore 'nough
+sumptious scrap--just th' kind yu allus like. Come on, th' boys are
+waitin' for yu."
+
+"Keep quiet!" hissed Hopalong.
+
+"What for?" Asked Pete in surprise. "Didn't yu say yu shore wanted to
+see that scrap?"
+
+"Shut yore face an' get scarce, or yu'll go home in cans!"
+
+As Hopalong seated himself once more Red strolled up to the door and
+knocked. Hopalong ripped it open and Red, looking as fierce and worried
+as he could, asked Hopalong if he was all right. Upon being assured by
+smoking adjectives that he was, the caller looked relieved and turned
+thoughtfully away.
+
+"Hey, yu! Come here!" called Hopalong.
+
+Red waved his hand and said that he had to meet a man and clattered
+down the stairs. Hopalong thought that he, also, had to meet a man and,
+excusing himself, hastened after his friend and overtook him in the
+Street, where he forced a confession. Returning to his hostess he told
+her of the whole outrage, and she was angry at first, but seeing the
+humorous side of it, she became convulsed with laughter. Her father
+re-read his paragraph for the thirteenth time and then, slamming the
+magazine on the floor, asked how many times he was expected to read ten
+lines before he knew what was in them, and went down to the bar.
+
+Miss Deane regarded her companion with laughing eyes and then became
+suddenly sober as he came toward her.
+
+"Go to your foreman and tell him that you will shoot to-morrow, for I
+will see that you do, and I will bring luck to the Bar-20. Be sure to
+call for me at one o'clock: I will be ready."
+
+He hesitated, bowed, and slowly departed, making his way to Tom Lee's,
+where his entrance hushed the hilarity which had reigned. Striding
+to where Buck stood, he placed his hands on his hips and searched the
+foreman's eyes.
+
+Buck smiled: "Yu ain't mad, are yu?" He asked.
+
+Hopalong relaxed: "No, but blame near it."
+
+Red and the others grabbed him from the rear, and when he had been
+"buffaloed" into good humor he threw them from him, laughed and waved
+his hand toward the bar:
+
+"Come up, yu sons-of-guns. Yore a cussed nuisance sometimes, but yore a
+bully gang all th' same."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV. Mr. Ewalt Draws Cards
+
+
+Tex Ewalt, cow-puncher, prospector, sometimes a rustler, but always a
+dude, rode from El Paso in deep disgust at his steady losses at faro
+and monte. The pecuniary side of these caused him no worry, for he was
+flush. This pleasing opulence was due to his business ability, for
+he had recently sold a claim for several thousand dollars. The first
+operation was simple, being known in Western phraseology as "jumping";
+and the second, somewhat more complicated, was known as "salting."
+
+The first of the money spent went for a complete new outfit, and he had
+parted with just three hundred and seventy dollars to feed his vanity.
+He desired something contrasty and he procured it. His sombrero, of gray
+felt a quarter of an inch thick, flaunted a band of black leather, on
+which was conspicuously displayed a solid silver buckle. His neck was
+protected by a crimson kerchief of the finest, heaviest silk. His shirt,
+in pattern the same as those commonly worn in the cow country, was of
+buckskin, soft as a baby's cheek and impervious to water, and the Angora
+goatskin chaps, with the long silken hair worn outside, were as white
+as snow. Around his waist ran loosely a broad, black leather belt
+supporting a heavy black holster, in which lay its walnut-handled
+burden, a .44 caliber six-shooter; and thirty center-fire cartridges
+peeked from their loops, fifteen on a side. His boots, the soles thin
+and narrow and the heels high, were black and of the finest leather.
+Huge spurs, having two-inch rowels, were held in place by buckskin
+straps, on which, also, were silver buckles. Protecting his hands were
+heavy buckskin gloves, also waterproof, having wide, black gauntlets.
+
+Each dainty hock of his dainty eight-hundred-pound buckskin pony was
+black, and a black star graced its forehead. Well groomed, with
+flowing mane and tail, and with the brand on its flank being almost
+imperceptible, the animal was far different in appearance from most of
+the cow-ponies. Vicious and high-spirited, it cavorted just enough to
+show its lines to the best advantage.
+
+
+The saddle, a famous Cheyenne and forty pounds in weight, was black,
+richly embossed, and decorated with bits of beaten silver which flashed
+back the sunlight. At the pommel hung a thirty-foot coil of braided
+horsehair rope, and at the rear was a Sharp's .50-caliber, breech-loading
+rifle, its owner having small use for any other make. The color of the
+bridle was the same as the saddle and it supported a heavy U bit which
+was capable of a leverage sufficient to break the animal's jaw.
+
+Tex was proud of his outfit, but his face wore a frown--not there only on
+acount of his losses, but also by reason of his mission, for under all
+his finery beat a heart as black as any in the cow country. For months
+he had smothered hot hatred and he was now on his way to ease himself of
+it.
+
+He and Slim Travennes had once exchanged shots with Hopalong in Santa
+Fe, and the month which he had spent in bed was not pleasing, and from
+that encounter had sprung the hatred. That he had been in the wrong made
+no difference with him. Some months later he had learned of the death
+of Slim, and it was due to the same man. That Slim had again been in
+the wrong also made no difference, for he realized the fact and nothing
+else.
+
+Lately he had been told of the death of Slippery Trendley and Deacon
+Rankin, and he accepted their passing as a personal affront. That they
+had been caught red-handed in cattle stealing of huge proportions and
+received only what was customary under the conditions formed no excuse
+in his mind for their passing. He was now on his way to attend the
+carnival at Muddy Wells, knowing that his enemy would be sure to be
+there.
+
+While passing through Las Cruces he met Porous Johnson and Silent Somes,
+who were thirsty and who proclaimed that fact, whereupon he relieved
+them of their torment and, looking forward to more treatment of a
+similar nature, they gladly accompanied him without asking why or where.
+
+As they left the town in their rear Tex turned in his saddle and
+surveyed them with a cynical smile.
+
+"Have yu heard anything of Trendley?" He asked.
+
+They shook their heads.
+
+"Him an' th' Deacon was killed over in th' Panhandle," he said.
+
+"What!" chorused the pair.
+
+"Jack Dorman, Shorty Danvers, Charley Teale, Stiffhat Bailey, Billy
+Jackson, Terry Nolan an' Sailor Carson was lynched."
+
+"What!" they shouted.
+
+"Fish O'Brien, Pinochle Schmidt, Tom Wilkins, Apache Gordon, Charley of
+th' Bar Y, Penobscot Hughes an' about twenty others died fightin'."
+
+Porous looked his astonishment: "Cavalry?"
+
+"An' I'm going after th' dogs who did it," he continued, ignoring the
+question. "Are yu with me?--Yu used to pal with some of them, didn't
+yu?"
+
+"We did, an' we're shore with yu!" cried Porous.
+
+"Yore right," endorsed Silent. "But who done it?"
+
+"That gang what's punchin' for th' Bar-20-Hopalong Cassidy is th' one
+I'm pining for. Yu fellers can take care of Peters an' Connors."
+
+The two stiffened and exchanged glances of uncertainty and apprehension.
+The outfit of the Bar-20 was too well known to cause exuberant joy to
+spring from the idea of war with it, and well in the center of all the
+tales concerning it were the persons Tex had named. To deliberately
+set forth with the avowed intention of planting these was not at all
+calculated to induce sweet dreams.
+
+Tex sneered his contempt.
+
+"Yore shore uneasy: yu ain't a-scared, are yu?" He drawled. Porous
+relaxed and made a show of subduing his horse: "I reckon I ain't scared
+plumb to death. Yu can deal me a hand," he asserted.
+
+"I'll draw cards too," hastily announced Silent, buttoning his vest.
+"Tell us about that jamboree over in th' Panhandle."
+
+Tex repeated the story as he had heard it from a bibulous member of the
+Barred Horseshoe, and then added a little of torture as a sauce to whet
+their appetites for revenge.
+
+"How did Trendley cash in?" Asked Porous.
+
+"Nobody knows except that bum from th' Tin-Cup. I'll get him later. I'd
+a got Cassidy up in Santa Fe, too, if it wasn't for th' sun in my eyes.
+Me an' Slim loosened up on him in th' Plaza, but we couldn't see nothing
+with him a-standin' against th' sun."
+
+"Where's Slim now?" Asked Porous. "I ain't seen him for some time."
+
+"Slim's with Trendley," replied Tex. "Cassidy handed him over to St.
+Pete at Cactus Springs. Him an' Connors sicked their outfit on him an'
+his vigilantes, bein helped some by th' O-Bar-O. They wiped th' town
+plumb off th' earth, an' now I'm going to do some wipin' of my own
+account. I'll prune that gang of some of its blossoms afore long. It's
+cost me seventeen friends so far, an' I'm going to stop th' leak, or
+make another."
+
+They entered Muddy Wells at sunrise on the day of the carnival and,
+eating a hearty breakfast, sallied forth to do their share toward making
+the festivities a success.
+
+The first step considered necessary for the acquirement of case and
+polish was begun at the nearest bar, and Tex, being the host, was so
+liberal that his friends had reached a most auspicious state when they
+followed him to Tom Lee's.
+
+Tex was too wise to lose his head through drink and had taken only
+enough to make him careless of consequences. Porous was determined to
+sing "Annie Laurie," although he hung on the last word of the first
+line until out of breath and then began anew. Silent, not wishing to be
+outdone, bawled at the top of his lungs a medley of music-hall words to
+the air of a hymn.
+
+Tex, walking as awkwardly as any cow-puncher, approached Tom Lee's, his
+two friends trailing erratically, arm in arm, in his rear. Swinging his
+arm he struck the door a resounding blow and entered, hand on gun, as it
+crashed back. Porous and Silent stood in the doorway and quarreled as
+to what each should drink and, compromising, lurched in and seated
+themselves on a table and resumed their vocal perpetrations.
+
+Tex swaggered over to the bar and tossed a quarter upon it: "Corn
+juice," he laconically exclaimed. Tossing off the liquor and glancing
+at his howling friends, he shrugged his shoulders and strode out by the
+rear door, slamming it after him. Porous and Silent, recounting friends
+who had "cashed in" fell to weeping and they were thus occupied when
+Hopalong and Buck entered, closely followed by the rest of the outfit.
+
+Buck walked to the bar and was followed by Hopalong, who declined his
+foreman's offer to treat. Tom Lee set a bottle at Buck's elbow and
+placed his hands against the bar.
+
+"Friend of yourn just hit the back trail," he remarked to Hopalong. "He
+was primed some for trouble, too," he added.
+
+"Yaas?" Drawled Hopalong with little interest.
+
+The proprietor restacked the few glasses and wiped off the bar. "Them's
+his pardners," he said, indicating the pair on the table.
+
+Hopalong turned his head and gravely scrutinized them. Porous was
+bemoaning the death of Slim Travennes and Hopalong frowned.
+
+"Don't reckon he's no relation of mine," he grunted.
+
+"Well, he ain't yore sister," replied Tom Lee, grinning.
+
+"What's his brand?" Asked the puncher.
+
+"I reckon he's a maverick, 'though yu put yore brand on him up to Santa
+Fe a couple of years back. Since he's throwed back on yore range I
+reckon he's yourn if yu wants him."
+
+"I reckon Tex is some sore," remarked Hopalong, rolling a cigarette.
+
+"I reckon he is," replied the proprietor, tossing Buck's quarter in the
+cash box. "But, say, you should oughter see his rig."
+
+"Yaas?"
+
+"He's shore a cow-punch dude--my, but he's some sumptious an'
+highfalutin'. An' bad? Why, he reckons th' Lord never brewed a more
+high-toned brand of cussedness than his'n. He shore reckons he's the
+baddest man that ever simmered."
+
+"How'd he look as th' leadin' man in a necktie festival?" Blazed Johnny
+from across the room, feeling called upon to help the conversation.
+
+"He'd be a howlin' success, son," replied Skinny Thompson, "judgin' by
+his friends what we elevated over in th' Panhandle."
+
+Lanky Smith leaned forward with his elbow on the table, resting his chin
+in the palm of his hand: "Is Ewalt still a-layin' for yu, Hopalong?" He
+asked.
+
+Hopalong turned wearily and tossed his half-consumed cigarette into the
+box of sand which did duty as a cuspidore: "I reckon so; an' he shore
+can hatch whenever he gets good an ready, too."
+
+"He's probably a-broodin' over past grievances," offered Johnny, as
+he suddenly pushed Lanky's elbow from the table, nearly causing a
+catastrophe.
+
+"Yu'll be broodin' over present grievances if yu don't look out, yu
+everlastin' nuisance yu," growled Lanky, planting his elbow in its
+former position with an emphasis which conveyed a warning.
+
+"These bantams ruflle my feathers," remarked Red. "They go around
+braggin' about th' egg they're goin' to lay an' do enough cacklin'
+to furnish music for a dozen. Then when th' affair comes off yu'll
+generally find they's been settin' on a door-knob."
+
+"Did yu ever see a hen leave th' walks of peace an' bugs an' rustle
+hell-bent across th' trail plumb in front of a cayuse?" Asked Buck.
+"They'll leave off rustlin' grub an' become candidates for th' graveyard
+just for cussedness. Well, a whole lot of men are th' same way. How many
+times have I seen them swagger into a gin shop an' try to run things
+sudden an' hard, an' that with half a dozen better men in th' same room?
+There's shore a-plenty of trouble a-comin' to every man without rustlin'
+around for more.
+
+"'Member that time yu an' Frenchy tried to run th' little town of Frozen
+Nose, up in Montana?" Asked Johnny, winking at the rest.
+
+"An' we did run it, for a while," responded Buck. "But that only goes to
+show that most young men are chumps--we were just about yore age then."
+
+Red laughed at the youngster's discomfiture: "That little squib of yourn
+shore touched her off--I reckon we irrigates on yu this time, don't we?"
+
+"Th' more th' Kid talks, th' more money he needs," remarked Lanky,
+placing his glass on the bar. "He had to blow me an' Skinny twice last
+night."
+
+"I got two more after yu left," added Skinny "He shore oughter practice
+keeping still."
+
+At one o'clock sharp Hopalong walked up to the clerk of the hotel and
+grinned. The clerk looked up:
+
+ "Hullo, Cassidy?"  He exclaimed, genially. "What was all that fuss
+about this mornin' when I was away? I haven't seen you for a long time,
+have I? How are you?"
+
+"That fuss was a fool joke of Buck's, an' I wish they had been throwed
+out," Hopalong replied. "What I want to know is if Miss Deane is in her
+room. Yu see, I have a date with her."
+
+The clerk grinned:
+
+"So she's roped you, too, has she?"
+
+"What do yu mean?" Asked Hopalong in surprise. "Well, well," laughed the
+clerk. "You punchers are easy. Any third-rate actress that looks good to
+eat can rope you fellows, all right. Now look here, Laura, you keep shy
+of her corral, or you'll be broke so quick you won't believe you ever
+had a cent: that's straight. This is the third year that she's been here
+and I know what I'm talking about. How did you come to meet her?"
+
+Hopalong explained the meeting and his friend laughed again:
+
+"Why, she knows this country like a book. She can't get lost anywhere
+around here. But she's blame clever at catching punchers."
+
+"Well, I reckon I'd better take her, go broke or not," replied Hopalong.
+"Is she in her room?"
+
+"She is, but she is not alone," responded the clerk. "There is a
+dude puncher up there with her and she left word here that she was
+indisposed, which means that you are outlawed."
+
+"Who is he?" Asked Hopalong, having his suspicions. "That friend of
+yours: Ewalt. He sported a wad this morning when she passed him, and she
+let him make her acquaintance. He's another easy mark. He'll be busted
+wide open to-night."
+
+"I reckon I'll see Tex," suggested Hopalong, starting for the stairs.
+
+"Come back, you chump!" cried the clerk. "I don't want any shooting
+here. What do you care about it? Let her have him, for it's an easy way
+out of it for you. Let him think he's cut you out, for he'll spend all
+the more freely. Get your crowd and enlighten them--it'll be better than
+a circus. This may sound like a steer, but it's straight."
+
+Hopalong thought for a minute and then leaned on the cigar case:
+
+"I reckon I'll take about a dozen of yore very best cigars, Charley. Got
+any real high-toned brands?"
+
+"Cortez panatella--two for a simoleon," Chancy replied. "But, seein' that
+it's you, I'll throw off a dollar on a dozen. They're a fool notion of
+the old man, for we can't sell one in a month."
+
+Hopalong dug up a handful and threw one on the counter, lighting
+another: "Yu light a Cortez panatella with me," he said, pocketing the
+remainder. "That's five simoleons she didn't get. So long."
+
+He journeyed to Tom Lee's and found his outfit making merry. Passing
+around his cigars he leaned against the bar and delighted in the first
+really good smoke he had since he came home from Kansas City.
+
+Johnny Nelson blew a cloud of smoke at the ceiling and paused with a
+pleased expression on his face:
+
+"This is a lalapoloosa of a cigar," he cried. "Where'd yu get it, an'
+how many's left?"
+
+"I got it from Charley, an' there's more than yu can buy at fifty a
+shot."
+
+"Well, I'll just take a few for luck," Johnny responded, running out
+into the street. Returning in five minutes with both hands full of
+cigars he passed them around and grinned: "They're birds, all right!"
+
+Hopalong smiled, turned to Buck and related his conversation with
+Chancy. "What do yu think of that?" He asked as he finished.
+
+"I think Charley oughter be yore guardian," replied the foreman.
+
+"He was," replied Hopalong.
+
+"If we sees Tex we'll all grin hard," laughed Red, making for the door.
+"Come on to th' contests--Lanky's gone already."
+
+Muddy Wells streamed to the carnival grounds and relieved itself of
+its enthusiasm and money at the booths on the way. Cow-punchers rubbed
+elbows with Indians and Mexicans, and the few tourists that were present
+were delighted with the picturesque scene. The town was full of fakirs
+and before one of them stood a group of cow-punchers, apparently
+drinking in the words of a barker.
+
+"Right this way, gents, and see the woman who don't eat. Lived for two
+years without food, gents. Right this way, gents. Only a quarter of a
+dollar. Get your tickets, gents, and see--"
+
+Red pushed forward:
+
+"What did yu say, pard?" He asked. "I'm a little off in my near ear.
+What's that about eatin' a woman for two years?"
+
+"The greatest wonder of the age, gents. The wom--"
+
+"Any discount for th' gang?" Asked Buck, gawking.
+
+"Why don't yu quit smokin' an' buy th' lady a meal?" Asked Johnny from
+the center of the group.
+
+"Th' cane yu ring th' cane yu get!" came from the other side of the
+street and Hopalong purchased rings for the outfit. Twenty-four rings
+got one cane, and it was divided between them as they wended their way
+toward the grounds.
+
+"That makes six wheels she didn't get," murmured Hopalong. As they
+passed the snake charmer's booth they saw Tex and his companion ahead
+of them in the crowd, and they grinned broadly. "I like th' front row in
+th' balcony," remarked Johnny, who had been to Kansas City. "Don't cry
+in th' second act--it ain't real," laughed Red. "We'll hang John Brown on
+a sour appletree--in th' Panhandle," sang Skinny as they passed them.
+
+Arriving at the grounds they hunted up the registration committee and
+entered in the contests. As Hopalong signed for the revolver competition
+he was rudely pushed aside and Tex wrote his name under that of his
+enemy. Hopalong was about to show quick resentment for the insult, but
+thought of what Charley had said, and he grinned sympathetically. The
+seats were filling rapidly, and the outfit went along the ground looking
+for friends. A bugle sounded and a hush swept over the crowd as the
+announcement was made for the first event.
+
+"Broncho-busting-Red Devil, never ridden: Frenchy McAllister, Tin-Cup,
+Montana; Meteor, killed his man: Skinny Thompson, Bar-20, Texas; Vixen,
+never ridden: Lefty Allen, O-Bar-O, Texas."
+
+All eyes were focused on the plain where the horse was being led out
+for the first trial. After the usual preliminaries had been gone through
+Frenchy walked over to it, vaulted in the saddle and the bandage was
+torn from the animal's eyes. For ten minutes the onlookers were held
+spellbound by the fight before them, and then the horse kicked and
+galloped away and Frenchy was picked up and carried from the field.
+
+"Too bad!" cried Buck, running from the outfit.
+
+"Did yu see it?" asked Johnny excitedly, "Th' cinch busted." Another
+horse was led out and Skinny Thompson vaulted to the saddle, and after
+a fight of half an hour rode the animal from the enclosure to the
+clamorous shouts of his friends. Lefty Allen also rode his mount from
+the same gate, but took ten minutes more in which to do it.
+
+The announcer conferred with the timekeepers and then stepped forward:
+"First, Skinny Thompson, Bar-20, thirty minutes and ten seconds; second,
+Lefty Allen, O-Bar-O, forty minutes and seven seconds."
+
+Skinny returned to his friends shamefacedly and did not look as if he
+had just won a championship. They made way for him, and Johnny, who
+could not restrain his enthusiasm pounded him on the back and cried: "Yu
+old son-of-a-gun!"
+
+The announcer again came forward and gave out the competitors for the
+next contest, steer-roping and tying. Lanky Smith arose and, coiling his
+rope carefully, disappeared into the crowd. The fun was not so great in
+this, but when he returned to his outfit with the phenomenal time of six
+minutes and eight seconds for his string of ten steers, with twenty-two
+seconds for one of them, they gave him vociferous greeting. Three of his
+steers had gotten up after he had leaped from his saddle to tie them,
+but his horse had taken care of that. His nearest rival was one minute
+over him and Lanky retained the championship.
+
+Red Connors shot with such accuracy in the rifle contest as to run his
+points twenty per cent higher than Waffles, of the O-Bar-O, and won the
+new rifle.
+
+The main interest centered in the revolver contest, for it was known
+that the present champion was to defend his title against an enemy and
+fears were expressed in the crowd that there would be an "accident."
+Buck Peters and Red stood just behind the firing line with their hands
+on hips, and Tex, seeing the precautions, smiled grimly as he advanced
+to the line.
+
+Six bottles, with their necks an inch above a board, stood twenty paces
+from him, and he broke them all in as many shots, taking twelve seconds
+in which to do it. Hopalong followed him and tied the score. Three tin
+balls rolling erratically in a blanket supported by two men were
+sent flying into the air in four shots, Tex taking six seconds. His
+competitor sent them from the blanket in three shots and in the same
+time. In slow shooting from sights Tex passed his rival in points and
+stood to win. There was but one more event to be contested and in it
+Hopalong found his joy.
+
+Shooting from the hip when the draw is timed is not the sport of even
+good shots, and when Tex made sixty points out of a possible hundred, he
+felt that he had shot well. When Hopalong went to the line his
+friends knew that they would now see shooting such as would be almost
+unbelievable, that the best draw-and-shoot marksman in their State was
+the man who limped slightly as he advanced and who chewed reflectively
+on his fifty-cent cigar. He wore two guns and he stepped with confidence
+before the marshal of the town, who was also judge of the contest.
+
+The iron ball which lay on the ground was small enough for the use of a
+rifle and could hardly be seen from the rear seats of the amphitheater.
+There was a word spoken by the timekeeper, and a gloved hand flashed
+down and up, and the ball danced and spun and leaped and rolled as shot
+after shot followed it with a precision and speed which brought the
+audience to a heavy silence. Taking the gun which Buck tossed to him
+and throwing it into the empty holster, he awaited the signal, and then
+smoke poured from his hips and the ball jumped continuously. Both guns
+emptied in the two-hand shooting, he wheeled and jerked loose the guns
+which the marshal wore, spinning around without a pause, the target
+hardly ceasing in its rolling. Under his arms he shot, backward and
+between his legs; leaping from side to side, ducking and dodging,
+following the ball wherever it went. Reloading the weapons quickly,
+he stepped forward and followed the ball until once more his guns
+were empty. Then he turned and walked back to the side of the marshal,
+smiling a little. His friends, and there were many in the crowd, torn
+from their affected nonchalance by shooting the like of which they had
+not attributed even to him, roared and shouted and danced in a frenzy of
+delight.
+
+Red also threw his guns to Hopalong, who caught them in the air and
+turning, faced Tex, who stood white of face and completely lost in the
+forgetfulness of admiration and amazement. The guns jerked again and a
+button flew from the buckskin shirt of his enemy; another tore a flower
+from his breast and another drove it into the ground at his feet as
+others stirred his hair and cut the buckle off his pretty sombrero. Tex,
+dazed, but wise enough to stand quiet, felt his belt tear loose and drop
+to his feet, felt a spur rip from its strap and saw his cigarette leap
+from his lips. Throwing the guns to Red, Hopalong laughed and abruptly
+turned and was lost in the crowd.
+
+For several seconds there was silence, but when the dazed minds realized
+what their eyes had seen, there arose a roar which shook the houses in
+the town. Roar after roar thundered forth and was sent crashing back
+again by the distant walls, sweeping down on the discomfited dude and
+causing him to slink into the crowd to find a place less conspicuous. He
+was white yet and keen fear gripped his heart as he realized that he had
+come to the carnival with the expressed purpose of killing his enemy in
+fair combat. The whole town knew it, for he had taken pains to spread
+the news.
+
+The woman he had been with knew it from words which she had overheard
+while on her way to the grounds with him. His friends knew it and would
+laugh him into forgetfulness as the fool who boasted. Now he understood
+why he had lost so many friends: they had attempted what he had sworn to
+attempt. Look where he would he could see only a smoke-wrapped demon who
+moved and shot with a speed incredible. There was reason why Slim had
+died. There was reason why Porous and Silent had paled when they learned
+of their mission.
+
+He hated his conspicuous clothes and his pretty broncho, and the
+woman who had gotten him to squander his money, and who was doubtless
+convulsed with laughter at his expense. He worked himself into a passion
+which knew no fear and he ran for the streets of the town, there to
+make good his boast or to die. When he found his enemy he felt himself
+grasped with a grip of steel and Buck Peters swung him around and
+grinned maliciously in his face:
+
+"You plaything!" hoarsely whispered the foreman. "Why don't yu get away
+while yu can? Why do yu want to throw yoreself against certain death? I
+don't want my pleasure marred by a murder, an' that is what it will
+be if yu makes a gun-play at Hopalong. He'll shoot yu as he did yore
+buttons. Take yore pretty clothes an' yore pretty cayuse an' go where
+this is not known, an' if ever again yu feels like killing Hopalong, get
+drunk an' forget it."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hopalong Cassidy's Rustler Round-Up, by 
+Clarence Edward Mulford
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOPALONG CASSIDY ***
+
+***** This file should be named 2546.txt or 2546.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/4/2546/
+
+Produced by Andrew Heath
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.