the same bein' that pop'lar air from the op'ry of
_Loocretia Borgia_, "Down in the Valley."'

"At this that oncooth crim'nal from the Cow Springs gets up:

"'The Mockin' Bird of Arizona which you-all is bluffin' about,' he
shouts, 'can't sing more'n a burro, an' used to sling hash in a
section house over by Colton.'

"'Never the less, notwithstandin',' replies Huggins, who's too drunk
to feel ruffled, 'Mam'selle Loocinda Gildersleeve, known to all the
world as the Mockin' Bird of Arizona, will now sing "Down in the
Valley."'

"Huggins would have let things go at that, but not so the Wolfville
pop'lace. In the cockin' of a winchester they swoops down on that Cow
Springs outcast like forty hen-hawks on a single quail, an' as I
yeretofore observes, if it ain't for Enright they'd have made him
shortly hard to find. You can gamble, the Cow Springs savage never
does go out on that limb ag'in.

"While Turkey Track escapes the water trough, an' makes his getaway
that time all right, the pore pony ain't got by Moore onscathed. The
bullet hits him jest to the r'ar of the saddle-flap, an' out about a
brace of miles he stumbles over dead.

"It's yere eevents begins to fall together like a shock of oats. The
Mockin' Bird's been over entrancin' Tucson, an' the reg'lar stage with
Monte not preecisely dove-tailin' with her needs, she charters a
speshul buckboard to get back. Thar's a feeble form of hooman ground
owl drivin' her, one of these yere parties who's all alkali an' hard
luck, an' as deevoid of manly sperit as jack-rabbits onweaned.

"This yere ground owl party, drivin' for the Mockin' Bird, comes
clatterin' along with the buckboard jest as Turkey Track strips the
saddle an' bridle from his deefunct pony. Turkey Track is not without
execyootive ability, an' seein' he's afoot an' thirty miles from his
home ranch, he pulls his gun an' sticks up the buckboard plenty
prompt. At the mere sight of a weepon the hands of that young
owl-person goes searchin' for stars, an' he's beggin' Turkey Track not
to rub him out--him thinkin' it's a reg'lar hold-up. That's all the
opp'sition thar is, onless you counts the reemarks of the Mockin'
Bird, who becomes both bitter an' bitin' in equal parts, but has no
more effect on Turkey Track--an' him afoot that a-way--than pourin'
water on a drowned rat. Shore, a cow-puncher'd fight all day, an' even
face a enraged female, before he'd walk a hour.

[Illustration: TURKEY TRACK, SEEIN' HE'S