ng their heads.

"'The tumblin' is about to begin; the band's playin', an' all us
athletes is ranged Injun file along a plank down which we're to run.
I'm the last chicken on the roost.

"'Even unto this day it's a subject of contention in circus cirkles as
to where I hits that springboard. Some claims I hits her too high up;
an' some says too low; for myse'f, I concedes I'm ignorant on the
p'int. I flies down the plank like a antelope! I hears the snarl of
the drums! I jumps an' strikes the springboard!

"'It's at this juncture things goes queer. To my wonder I don't turn
no flip-flap, but performs like a draw-shot in billiards. I plants my
moccasins on the springboard; an' then instead of goin' on an' over a
cayouse who's standin' thar awaitin' sech events, I shoots back'ard
about fifteen foot an' lands in a ondistinguishable heap. An' as I
strikes a plank it smashes a brace of my ribs.

"'For a second I'm blurred in my intellects. Then I recovers; an' as
I'm bein' herded back into the dressin' room by the fosterin' hands of
the ring master an' my pard, the clown, over in the audience I hears
Jule's silvery laugh an' her old pap allowin' he'd give a hoss if I'd
only broke my neck. Also, I catches a remark of old Hickey; "Which
that Boggs boy allers was a ediot!" says old Hickey.'"

CHAPTER XV.

Bowlegs and Major Ben.

"Which this yere Major Ben," remarked the Old Cattleman, "taken in
conjunction with his bosom pard, Billy Bowlaigs, frames up the only
casooalty which gets inaug'rated in Wolfville."

"What!" I interjected; "don't you consider the divers killings,--the
death of the Stinging Lizard and the Dismissal of Silver Phil, to say
nothing of the taking off of the Man from Red Dog--don't you, I say,
consider such bloody matters casualties?"

"No, sir," retorted my friend, emitting the while sundry stubborn puffs
of smoke, "no, sir; I regyards them as results. Tharfore, I reiterates
that this yere Major Ben an' Bowlaigs accomplishes between 'em the only
troo casooalty whereof Wolfville has a record."

At this he paused and surveyed me with an eye of challenge; after a
bit, perceiving that I proposed no further contradiction, he went on:

"This Billy Bowlaigs at first is a cub b'ar--a black cub b'ar: an' when
he grows up to manhood, so to speak, he's as big, an' mighty near as
strong physical, as Dan Boggs. Nacherally, however, Dan lays over
Bowlaigs mental like a ace-full.

"It's Dave