g chasin'
its tail.

"An' then thar's them footile bluffs he's allers tryin' to run. He's
been pesterin' in an' out of the Red Light one evenin' ontil he's got
Black Jack incensed. As he comes squanderin' along, for say the
twentieth time, Black Jack groans, an' murmurs,

"'Yere's that booze-soaked old hoss-thief ag'in!'

"Monte gets the echo of it, same as folks allers does when it ain't
wanted, but he's onable to say who. So he stands thar by the bar,
glarin' 'round an' snortin'. Final, he roars:

"'Who cuts loose that personal'ty?'

"Thar ain't no answer, an' Monte ag'in takes to pitchin' on his rope.

"'Show me the galoot who insults me,' he roars; 'let him no longer
dog it, but p'int himse'f out as the gent.'

"'All right,' says Black Jack, whose indignation gets the best of his
reespons'bilities as barkeep, 'which I'm the party who alloodes to you
as a booze-soaked old hoss-thief.'

"'An' so you're the gent,' says Monte, castin' a witherin' glance at
Black Jack; 'so you're the would-be sooicide who calls me a
booze-soaked old hoss-thief?'

"'Which I'm the identical stingin' lizard. Now what is it you're so
plumb eager to say?'

"'What am I eager to say? I merely wants to remark that you ain't done
nothin' to swell up over. You-all needn't go thinkin' you're the first
barkeep who calls me a booze-soaked old hoss-thief.'

"Havin' la'nched this yere, Monte turns off as stiffly pompous as
though he ain't left a grease-spot of Black Jack.

"When folks won't listen to him no longer, Monte goes bulgin' forth
into the highways an' the byways, an' holds long an' important
discussions with signs, an' dry-goods boxes, an' sim'lar inan'mate
elements of the landscape. Also, to mules an' burros. I remarks him
myse'f, whisperin' in the onregyardful y'ear of a burro, an' said
anamile as sound asleep as a tree. When that drunkard's through his
confidences, he backs off, an' wavin' his paw plumb myster'ous at the
burro says:

"'Remember, now; I'm givin' you this yere p'inter as a friend.'

"That time Black Jack offends Monte, after the latter hits the
sidewalk followin' what he clar'ly considers is his crushin' come-back
on Black Jack, he gets the feelin' that Jack's ha'ntin' along on his
trail. Before he's gone fifty foot, he w'irls about, an' shouts:

"'Don't you-all follow me! Which, if you crowds me, them places that
has knowed you won't know you no more forever.'

"When Monte gets off this menace, it seems