t from
Albuquerque. After he's beat cold, Toobercloses gets tangled up
accidental in a mesquite bush, the quill-wheel swaps eends with
itse'f, an' the hectic Albuquerque bandit lands head on in a bunch of
cactus. He's shore a spectacle; an' Peets says private that for a
while thar's hopes he'll die. As for the parson, who's the sorest
divine in Arizona, he allows that the only bet he ever knows
prov'dence to overlook is not breakin' the hectic bandit's neck.

"Nacherally, the Red Dogs feels some grouchy at the way things has
gone, an' while they gives up their orig'nal thought of lynchin' the
hectic bandit, they're plenty indignant at him for turnin' old Holt's
fooneral into a hoss race. It ain't old Holt that's frettin' 'em so
much as that they feels like it's a disgrace on their camp.

"This yere Red Dog feelin' prodooces a onlooked for effect. They goes
gloomin' an' glowerin' 'round, an' talkin' to themselves to sech a
hostile extent it ups an' scares the Turner person. Plumb timid by
nacher, he gets afraid the Red Dogs' indignation'll incloode him
final, an' eend by drawin' their horns his way. It's no use tryin' to
ca'm him. Argyooment, reemonstrance, even a promise to protect him
with our lives, has no effect. The Turner person, in a last stampede
of his nerve, is for dustin' back to Missouri--him an' his Peggy
bride. He says it's more peaceful, more civ'lized thar, which shore
strikes us as a heap jocose. In the end, however, we has to let him
go.

"The hearse?

"We keeps the hearse, that an' Boomerang; Armstrong's uncle buys 'em.
He says he don't aim to be sep'rated none from the only hearse within
a hundred miles, an' him on the verge of the grave.

"'Which my only reason for livin' now,' says he, 'is to lac'rate
Boggs, an' even that as a pastime is beginnin' to pall.'

"What time does Boomerang make?

"No one preetends to hold a watch. Thar's one thing, though, which
looks like he was shore goin' some. Tutt on the way back picks up a
dead jack-rabbit, that's been run over by the hearse."

XII

SPELLING BOOK BEN

"Which it's as you states." The old cattleman assumed the easy
attitude of one sure of his position. "Reefinement, that a-way, will
every now an' then hit the center of the table in manner an' form most
onexpected. Thar's Red Dog. Now whoever do you reckon would look for
sech a oncooth outfit to go onbeltin' in any reefined racket? An' yet
thar's once at least when Red Dog shows i