Tex""

ut of the window as the roan stopped before h

ome for no Joneses,

letter is concerned." He looked along the walls of the store. "You shore carry a big stock for a town like this, Mr. Williams," he complimented, his eyes again viewing the line of bottles with a sweeping glance. "Strychnine," he read to himself, nodding with understanding. "Shore, for wolves an' coyotes. Quinine, Aloes, Capsicum, Laudanum--quite a collection for a general store. Takes me back a good many years." Aloud he said. "I was admirin' that there pipe, an' I've got t

what yo're lookin' for," growled Williams. "Bein' th' proprietor I know a

want is some center-fire .38 short

im and he wondered if his companion was a two-gun man, with only one of them being openly worn. Such a combination was not a rarity. A gun in

"Got plenty of .45's, quite some .44's, less .41's, and a few .38's in th' long cat'ridges. I ain't got no .38 shorts, n

d. I'm shore sorry you ain't got 'em because my rifle cat'ridges are runnin' low. That's what comes of havin' to buy a gun that don't eat regulation food. It was

ad. "I did have some--they sent me some shorts by mistake an'

size. I'll wait till you see." He idly watched the scowling proprietor as he went behind the counter and dropped to one knee, his

with the shorts, and save himself a protracted search. "Kept 'em with th' rest of th' cat'ridges

one of the wide-mouthed bottles on the shelf. "Th

get 'em here," he confessed as he swung back and replaced the depleted bottle. He assumed an erect position again, one hand resting in a co

watching him with great interest. "I can find 'em if they're here, Mr. Jones," he growled. "You

n's on," answered Tex. "No tellin' where

of them s?ngerbund, or shootin'-fest guns," replied Tex. "Made for German target clubs, back in th' East. Got fine sights, an' is heavy so it won't tremble none. Two trigge

in' acquainted fast," he remarked, pushing the change a

ut I reckon she'll make yore nepphey a good wife.

her a good husban', bein' nat'rally domestic an' affectionate. An' he's so sot on it that I'm near as much interested

than most folks admit. Me an' you, now, would be makin' a terrible mistake if we married a woman as young as she is. We got too much sense. An'

ce Tex had appeared in town. "She's nat'rally a little skittish, an' Hennery is sor

tioned to him somethin' I found worked real well; but what works with one woman ain't got no call to get stuck on itself--th'

ttle," responded Williams,

any results for awhile, an' then work fast an' sudden. Well, see y

the German shooting-club rifle, but Tex mounted and rode aw

, heading for Buffalo Creek. He had no particular object in choosing that direction, the main t

ht of crystals. "In our rough-and-ready weights a silver half-dime was twenty grains; a three-cent piece was forty grains, and I think my three-cent silver piece of '51 weighed ten grains. But not havin' any of 'em now, all that does me no good. Shucks--there's plenty of m

t wantin' to kill nobody, we'd better make shore. Yo're a willin' cayuse, a

of the gully was a miserable hut. "That must be Jake's: we'll detour so he won't see us." Twenty minutes later he came to the second fork an

face his visitor. "Glad to see you," he calle

to me, up wind," laughed

n' come in th' house, where th' sun ai

exterior, and it was none too clean. His roving glances saw and passed the gold scales, two metal cups hanging by

of gold, Blascom?"

ump I've dug in a sandy place in its bed I'd had no water at all." He reached into his pocket and produced several bits of gold, none of them much larger

" asked Tex curiousl

ight, I reckon,"

too trustin' a nature. Yo're too hopeful

a metallic clink and the two pans slowly sought the same level. "Couple of grains under,"

d out into his hand. "I ain't never dug out no hunks of gold an' I'm curious. If you aim

. He shook his head. "Better set down an' watch me, lendin'

o that i

elp me more by carryin' water an' fillin' up everythin' in here that'll hold it. After I get throu

the buckets. "Come on: reveal yore gold mine. I'm

led the way. "That can wait. It ain't often I have any free help

meal that'll make you glad yo're livin'; but you got to come after it to ea

f sickly willows and box elders. It was a hole about two feet square, the sandy sides held up by a cribwo

ng for them. "Thought you was goin' a

min' around in there with my shovel until after th' water was saved. You can carry 'em th' next

grease, he placed his thumb against the lead and pushed, turning the cartridge slowly as he worked. When he heard Bla

or the shovel and the gold pan. "There's beans you can warm up, an' some bacon. There's also some sour-doughs. Make a good pot of coffee an' yell whe

k he added one more crystal and put the rest back into his pocket. Glancing around the hut he saw a torn, discarded pamphlet in a corner and he removed some of the inner sheets. When he had finished weighing and wrapping he had a dozen little packages of more than twenty-four, and less than thirty, grains. Wiping out the little tray he replaced the weight, drank deeply from a bucket and then started a fire in the home-made rock-and-clay stove. While it caught he went out, picked u

d is washed in with th' water, fillin' it up from th' bottom as fast as I can dig it out an' pan it. I can't understand where all that water comes from. I know there's cussed little of it further down th' crick bed. When she d

nd passed the pouch to his companion. "New pipe?" he asked. "Then wet yore finger an' rub it around

want. I ain't anxious to get back to town before dark. An' I'll put on them old

th' bank, out of th' way of high water. I can pan it any time. You see, this dry spell is due to end 'most any time, an' when it does it'll be a reg'lar clou

it on the day when he and his then enemy, Hopalong Cassidy, were fighting it out in the brush. His eyes glowed as the details returned to him and went past in order

awares." He drew a deep breath and returned to the main subject. "Why don't yo

better I'll like it. There ain't one I'd trust, an' most of 'em are busted an' plumb desperate. I've been pannin' a lot better than fair day's wages out here, but I'm doin' without everythin' that I can because I

ls, lettin' on that it is yore bedrock reserve that yo'

objected Blascom. "Go

nother--even less, bulk for bulk, without th' alloy. I'll change with you if you want." Then he drew back his hand and grinned quizzically. "It's allus well to think of

ig bills in place of gold when he could get 'em, an' when he wasn't

om me in a two-hand game of draw? Say as much as we can fix up? How much you want to ch

he returned he went into a corner where he could not be seen by anyone passing the hut and took several sacks from his pocket. It did not take him long to weigh their

re money till I take it away from you

smiling. "I got th' gold an' a cussed good c

ts of men for forty-odd years--ever since I was a boy of sixteen. A man's got to back his best judgment: an' I'm backin' mine. If I wasn't shore about you do you reckon I'

s of long ago. "Deacon" Rankin, "Slippery" Trendley, "Slim" Travennes, and others of that savage, murderous, vulture class returned on his mental canvas. Of the worst class in the great West they had stood in the first rank; and at one time he had stood with them, shoulder to shoulder, had deliberately chosen them for his friends and companions, and in many of their villainies he had played his minor