jacks an' salt hoss as usual, turns to Old Man Enright, an'
says:

"'As soon as ever I've got the last drunkard fed an' outen the house, I'm
goin' to put on my shaker an' go an' tell that Tucson Jennie Tutt what's
on my mind. I shore never sees a woman change more than Jennie since the
days when she cooks for me in this yere very restauraw an' lays plans an'
plots to lure Dave into wedlock. I will say that Jennie, nacheral, is a
good wife; but the fashion, wherein she tromples on Dave an' his rights
is a disgrace to her sex, an' I'm goin' to deevote a hour this mornin' to
callin' Jennie's attention tharunto.'

"'Missis Rucker is a mighty intrepid lady,' says Enright, when we goes
over to the New York store followin' feed. 'I'd no more embrace them
chances she's out to tackle than I'd go dallyin' about a wronged grizzly.
But jest the same, I'd give a stack of reds if Peets is here! When did
he say he'd be back from Tucson?'

"'The Doc don't allow he'll come trailin' in ag'in,' says Dan Boggs,
'ontil day after to-morry. Which this female dooel will be plumb over by
then, an' most likely the camp a wrack.'

"While we-all stands thar gazin' on each other, enable to su'gest
anything to meet the emergency, Texas Thompson's pony is brought up from
the corral, saddled an' bridled, an' ready for the trail.

"'Well, gents,' says Texas, when he sees his hoss is come, 'I reckons
I'll say _adios_ an' pull my freight. I'll be back in a week.'

"'Wherever be you p'intin' for?' asks Cherokee Hall. 'Ain't this goin'
of yours some sudden?'

"'It is a trifle hasty,' says Texas; 'but do you cimmarons think I'm
goin' to linger yere after Missis Rucker gives notice she's preparin' to
burn the ground around Tucson Jennie about Dave? Gents, I don't pack the
nerve! I ain't lived three years with my former wife who gets that
Laredo divorce I once or twice adverts to, an' not know enough not to get
caught out on no sech limb as this. No, sir; I sees enough of woman an'
her ways to teach me that now ain't no time to be standin' about
irresoloote an' ondecided, an' I'm goin' to dig out for Tucson, you bet,
ontil this uprisin' subsides.'

"This example of Texas scares us up a whole lot; the fact is, it
stampedes us; an' without a further word of argyment, the whole band
makes a break for the corral, throws saddles onto the swiftest ponies,
an' in two minutes we're lost in that cloud of alkali dust we kicks up
down the trail toward