et everything was as quiet as a funeral; and
although every man may have wanted to laugh, they all looked sober and
sanctimonious, and as we imagined, took extra precautions to look
sorrowful and sympathetic, as we rode along, looking savagely at them,
apparently ready to spring from the wagon and pounce upon them at a
second's warning.

We then drove to the hotel, where we took quarters.

The next day, Sunday, while we were standing out in front, a man came up
and began interrupting us in our conversation, and became rather abusive
when we asked him to go away and not interfere with our affairs. He
then said he was a lawyer and a gentleman, if he _had_ been drinking a
little, and he could whip half-a-dozen such men as we were; and so
saying he shook his fist under Doctor Frank's nose. He soon discovered
his mistake, for no sooner had he done so than he received a straight
left-hander from Frank, right on his big red nose. I shall never forget
his looks, as he began backing up, in a dazed condition, and kept
backing round and round in a circle, with the blood spurting and his
nose flattened all over his face, and finally, not being able to keep on
his feet any longer, landed squarely, in a sitting posture, right in the
middle of a puddle of water that had been made by a severe rain-storm
that morning.

He had no sooner landed in the water, than not less than two dozen men
came running from a saloon across the street; and the leader of the mob,
a man about as large again as either of us, and who, we afterwards
learned, was the pugilist of the town, came rushing up to us and said:

"Any man that will strike a drunken man is a coward."

From this we inferred that the whole thing was a put-up job, and our
only way out was to assert our rights and fight our way through.

He was coolly informed that we were not looking for fights, but we
never been placed on the list of cowards yet. He said:

"Well, I am here to clean both you fellows out."

"Very well, I guess you can commence on me," said Doctor Frank; and they
opened up. The crowd gathered closely around, and I became a little
excited, and fearful lest some one should assist the stranger by kicking
or hitting Frank. While they were scuffling on the ground I stuck close
by them, and realizing that my little escapade of the day before would
have a tendency to give me considerable prestige, I continued to cry
out, at the top of my voice:

"Gentlemen, stand back, sta