drive him forth like a dog, so I sez, too low for the rest to hear:
"Jim, I know the double life you've been leadin'; but you can't break
Barbie's heart. You're a married man, an' I know it."

"You lie," he sez, clear an' cold. It was just the word I needed.

I crossed the room an' laid my gun on a chair, an' then I turned to
him. "We're equal now," sez I. "The winner gets the gun."

He wasn't as strong as I was, quite; an' he was some out o' condition;
but he had had trainin' more than me, an' for a few minutes he stood me
off; an' then as he struck at me I grabbed his wrist, his left wrist,
with my right hand, shot it in close to his body, an' clamped it behind
his back; while I got his throat with my left. Slowly I brought him to
his knees, my fingers all the time workin' deeper into his throat,
while his right kept jabbin' me till it made me grunt. No one tried to
interfere at first; but then he got too weak to strike. Barbie said
sharply, "Happy Hawkins, stop that at once!"

"I'll stop as soon as he promisses to go without further trouble," sez
I.

She got up an' came across the room to us like a flash, an' seized the
wrist that held Jim's throat. "Let him alone, Happy," she said fiercely.

I gave him a little push that sent him to the floor, an' then I picked
up my gun. Jim rose to his feet; but the starch was purty well taken
out of him, an' of course this touched her heart, she bein' a woman.
"Are you hurt, Dick?" she sez sympathetic. "Yes, I'm hurt," he snaps
back, glarin' at me; "not at what he's done, but at his lies."

"It's no lie," sez I.

"What was it?" asked Barbie--of Jim. He didn't answer for a minute, an'
when he did his voice shook; but he looked into her eyes as he
answered: "He said I was married."

Barbie drew away with a sharp gasp an' looked at him in horror; then
she looked at me with her face all drawn up with anguish. "I tried to
prepare you for this three weeks ago, Barbie," I sez, "an' you--you
know what you threw in my face."

"Oh, Happy, Happy," she whispered, "it's not true, it's not true--say
it's not true!"

"It is true, Barbie," sez I, an' she gave a scream.

"It is not true," sez Dick, an' she glanced from one to the other.

"I can prove it at once," sez I; "she's here to-night."

"Who?" asked Dick with a start.

"The wife you left in Laramie," sez I.

"Good God, you haven't brought her here, have you!" shouted Dick, an'
Barbie a queer, heart-broken little laugh.