an' Benson an' Silver City. That Lightnin' Bug
tarrapin' from Red Dog is loafin' about, too, while the kyard sharp's
talkin', his y'ears a-wavin' like a field of clover. You don't figger
thar's a chance that Red Dog gets the notion, Sam, an' takes to
holdin' them tournaments of learnin' itse'f?'

"What Monte says sets us thinkin'. As a roole we don't pay much heed
to his observations, the same bein' freequent born of alcohol. But
that bluff about Red Dog sort o' scares us up a lot. Good can come out
of Nazareth, an' even Monte might once in a while drive the center as
a matter of luck.

"'It wouldn't do us, Doc,' says Enright, who's made some oneasy by the
thought--'which it shore wouldn't do us, as an advanced camp, to let
Red Dog beat us to them spellin' schools.'

"'I should confess as much!' admits Peets, mighty emphatic. 'Speakin'
from commoonal standp'ints, it'd mark us as too dead to skin.'

"The sityooation takes shape in a resolootion to hold a spellin'
school ourselves, an' invite Red Dog to stand in. Sech steps is
calc'lated, we allows, to head off orig'nal action on the Red Dog
part.

"'Let's challenge 'em to spell ag'in us,' says Texas. 'That's shore to
stop 'em from holdin' spellin' schools of their own, an' it'll be as
simple as tailin' steers to down 'em. I'll gamble what odds you
please that, when it comes to edyoocation that a-way, we can make them
Red Dogs look like a bunch of Digger Injuns.'

"'Don't move your stack to the center on that proposition, Texas,'
observes Tutt, 'ontil you thoroughly skins your hand. Edyoocation
ain't wholly dead in Red Dog. Thar's a shorthorn over thar, him who
keeps books for the Wells-Fargo folks, who's edyoocated to a razor
edge.'

"'Him?' says Boggs. 'That murderer ain't no book sharp speshul. Put
him ag'in the Doc or Col'nel Sterett, an' he wouldn't last as long as
a quart of whiskey at a barn raisin'. Which he's a heap sight better
fitted to shine in a gun-play than a spellin' contest.'

"'But Col'nel Sterett ain't here none,' Tutt urges, 'havin' gone back
to see his folks; an' as for the Doc, he'll be needed to put out the
words. Some competent gent's got to go back of the box an' deal the
game, an' the Doc's the only stoodent in town who answers that
deescription.'

"Armstrong, who's happened along lookin' for his little old forty
drops, lets on he knows a party down in El Paso who can spell any
word that ever lurks between the covers of a dictionary.