y, we used to run races with 'em. Some of us would hold two or more
chickens back of a chalk line, and the starter'd blow the horn from a
hundred yards to a mile away, dependin' on whether it was a sprint or
for distance. We had pools on the results, gave odds, made books, and
kept records. After the thing got knowed we made money hand over fist.

The stranger broke off abruptly and began to roll a cigarette.

"What did you quit it for, then?" ventured Charley, out of the hushed
silence.

"Pride," replied the stranger solemnly. "Haughtiness of spirit."

"How so?" urged Charley, after a pause.

"Them chickens," continued the stranger, after a moment, "stood around
listenin' to me a-braggin' of what superior fowls they was until they
got all puffed up. They wouldn't have nothin' whatever to do with the
ordinary chickens we brought in for eatin' purposes, but stood around
lookin' bored when there wasn't no sport doin'. They got to be just
like that Four Hundred you read about in the papers. It was one
continual round of grasshopper balls, race meets, and afternoon
hen-parties. They got idle and haughty, just like folks. Then come
race suicide. They got to feelin' so aristocratic the hens wouldn't
have no eggs."

Nobody dared say a word.

"Windy Bill's snake--" began the narrator genially.

"Stranger," broke in Windy Bill, with great emphasis, "as to that
snake, I want you to understand this: yereafter in my estimation that
snake is nothin' but an ornery angleworm!"

PART II

THE TWO GUN MAN

CHAPTER ONE

THE CATTLE RUSTLERS

Buck Johnson was American born, but with a black beard and a dignity of
manner that had earned him the title of Senor. He had drifted into
southeastern Arizona in the days of Cochise and Victorio and Geronimo.
He had persisted, and so in time had come to control the water--and
hence the grazing--of nearly all the Soda Springs Valley. His troubles
were many, and his difficulties great. There were the ordinary
problems of lean and dry years. There were also the extraordinary
problems of devastating Apaches; rivals for early and ill-defined range
rights--and cattle rustlers.

Senor Buck Johnson was a man of capacity, courage, directness of
method, and perseverance. Especially the latter. Therefore he had
survived to see the Apaches subdued, the range rights adjusted, his
cattle increased to thousands, grazing the area of a principality.
Now, all the energy an