girl Ruby--thet's her
name--so I was mighty good-natured.... I dropped in Stanton's to-day.
Ruby spotted me fust off, an' SHE asked me to dance. Shore I'm no dandy
dancer, but I tried to learn. We was gettin' along powerful nice when
in comes Cordy, hoppin' mad. He had a feller with him. An' both had been
triflin' with red liquor. You oughter seen the crowd get back. Made me
think Cordy an' his pard had blowed a lot round heah an' got a rep.
Wal, I knowed they was bluff. Jest mean, ugly four-flushers. Shore
they didn't an' couldn't know nothin' of me. I reckon I was only
thet long-legged, red-headed galoot from Texas. Anyhow, I was made to
understand it might get hot sudden-like if I didn't clear out. I left
it to the girl. An' some of them girls is full of hell. Ruby jest stood
there scornful an' sassy, with her haid leanin' to one side, her eyes
half-shut, an' a little smile on her face. I'd call her more 'n hell.
A nice girl gone wrong. Them kind shore is the dangerest.... Wal,
she says: 'Reddy, are you goin' to let them run you out of heah? They
haven't any strings on me.' So I slapped Cordy's face an' told him
to shut up. He let out a roar an' got wild with his hands, like them
four-flush fellers do who wants to look real bad. I says, pretty
sharplike, 'Don't make any moves now!' An' the darned fool went fer his
gun!... Wal, I caught his hand, twisted the gun away from him, poked him
in the ribs with it, an' then shoved it back in his belt. He was crazy,
but pretty pale an' surprised. Shore I acted sudden-like. Then I says,
'My festive gent, if you THINK of thet move again you'll be stiff before
you start it.'... Guess he believed me."

Larry paused in his narrative, wiped his face, and moistened his lips.
Evidently he was considerably shaken.

"Well, go on," said Neale, impatiently.

"Thet was all right so far as it went," resumed Larry. "But the pard of
Cordy's--he was half-drunk an' a big brag, anyhow. He took up Cordy's
quarrel. He hollered so he stopped the music an' drove 'most everybody
out of the hall. They was peepin' in at the door. But Ruby stayed.
There's a game kid, an' I'm goin' to see her to-morrow."

"You are not," declared Neale. "Hurry up. Finish your story."

"Wal, the big bloke swaggered all over me, an' I seen right off thet he
didn't have sense enough to be turned. Then I got cold. I always used
to.... He says, 'Are you goin' to keep away from Ruby?'

"An' I says, very polite, 'I reckon