"Stranger," continued Fisher, warming up, when he saw that his words
had not produced the desired result, "King James the Twelfth, on the
memorable an' blood-soaked field of Trafalgar, gave men their rights. On
that great day he signed the Magnet Charter, and proved himself as
great a liberator as the sainted Lincoln. You, on this most auspicious
occasion, hold in yore strong hand the destiny of this town--the women
an' children in this cursed community will rise up an' bless you forever
an' pass yore name down to their ancestors as a man of deeds an' honor!
Let us pause to consider this--"

"Hold that pause!" interrupted the astounded bartender hurriedly, and
with shaking voice. "String it out till I get untangled! I ain't up much
on history, so I won't take no chance with that; but I want to tell our
eloquent guest that there ain't no women _or_ children in this town. An'
if there was, I sort of reckon their ancestors would be born first. What
do you think about it--"

"Let us pause to consider the shameful an' burning _indignity_
perpetrated upon us to-day!" continued Fisher, unheeding the bartender's
words. "I, a peaceful, law-abiding _citizen_ of this _glorious_
Commonwealth, a free an' _equal_ member of a liberty-loving nation, a
nation whose standard is, _now_ and forever, 'Gimme liberty or gimme
det', a _nation_ that stands for all the conceivable benefits that
mankind may enjoy, a _nation_ that scintillates pyrotechnically over the
prostitution of power--"

_Bang!_ went the bartender's fist on the counter. "Hey! Pause again!
Wait a minute! Go back to 'shameful an' burning,' and gimme a chance!"

"--that stands for an even break, I, Nathaniel G. Fisher, have been
deprived of one of my inalienable rights, the right of locomotion to
distant an' other parts. _An'_ I say, right here an' now, that I won't
allow no spavined individual with thieving prehensils to--"

"Has that pound-keeper got a rifle?" calmly interrupted the stranger,
without a pang of remorse.

"He has. Thus has it allus been with tyrants--well armed, fortified by
habit an' tradition--"

"Then you won't get my gun, savvy? We'll find another way to get that
cayuse as long as you feel that the marshal is yore hunting. Besides,
this man's gall deserves some respect; it is genius, an' to pump genius
full of cold lead is to act rash. Now, suppose you tell me when this
auction is due to come off."

"Oh, not for a week; he wants to run up the board