Sweetheart, how can you waste time talkin' to this yere hooman
Sahara, whose intellects is that sterile they wouldn't raise
cow-pease?"

"'This makes Jenks oneasy, an' getting up, he reemarks, "Dick
Stallins, I'll be the all-firedest obleeged to you if you'll attend on
me to the foot of the hollow, an' bring your instrooments."

"'At this I explains that I ain't got my instrooments with me, havin'
left both rifle an' bowie in the dugout when I paddles over to the
dance.

"'Jenks makes a insultin' gesture, an' reetorts, "Don't crawl, Dick
Stallins. Borry old Bender's nine-inch bootcher, an' come with me."

"'To appease him I says I will, an' that I'll j'ine him at the before
named slaughter-ground in the flicker of a lamb's tail. Jenks stalks
off plumb satisfied, while I searches out Ben Hazlett, an' whispers
that Jenks is askin' for him some urgent, an' has gone down the trace
towards the foot of the hollow to look him up. Nacherally, my
diplom'cy in this yere behalf sends Ben cavortin' after Jenks; an'
this relieves me a heap, knowin' that all Jenks wants is a fight, an'
Ben'll do him jest as well as me.

"'Which them was shorely happy days!' he continyoos, settin' down the
bottle wharwith he's been encouragin' his faculties. 'Troo, every gent
has to sleep with his head in a iron kettle for fear of Injuns, an' a
hundred dollars is bigger'n a cord of wood, but life is plenty
blissful jest the same.'

"'Was you afraid of this yere Jenks?' asks Boggs.

"'No more'n if he's a streak of lightnin'. Only, I've got on a new
huntin' shirt, made of green blanket cloth, an' I ain't none strenuous
about havin' that gyarment all slashed up.

"'To proceed: After I dispatches Ben on the heels of Jenks that a-way
it occurs to me that mebby I'm sort o' tired with the labors of the
evenin', an' I'll find my dugout, ferry myse'f over to my own proper
wickyup, an' hit the hay for a snooze. I'm some hurried to the
concloosion by the way in which eevents begins to accumyoolate in my
immedyit vicin'ty. Bill Wheeler announces without a word of warnin'
that he's a flyin' alligator, besides advancin' the theery that Gene
Hemphill is about as deeserv'dly pop'lar as a abolitionist in South
Caroliny. I suspects that this attitoode of mind on Bill's part is
likely to provoke discussion, which suspicion is confirmed when Gene
knocks Bill down, an' boots him into the dooryard. Once in the open,
after a clout or two, Gene an' Bill goes to a c