ge
the newcomer tiptoed in vain to catch a glimpse of the cause of the
excitement. Wherefore, he calmly removed an almond-eyed Oriental from a
chair on which he was standing, tipped the ex-Cantonese a half dollar,
and appropriated the point of vantage himself.

There was a cleared space in the corner by the roulette table, and here,
his chair tipped back against the wall and a glass of whisky in front
of him, sat a sufficiently strange specimen of humanity. He was a man
of about fifty years, large boned and gaunt. Dressed in fringed buckskin
trousers and a silver-laced Mexican sombrero, he affected the long hair,
the sweeping mustache, and the ferocious aspect that are the custom
of the pseudo-Westerners who do business in the East with fake medical
remedies. Around his waist was a belt garnished with knives by the
dozen. These were long and pointed, sharpened to a razor edge. One of
them was in his hand poised for a throw at the instant Bucky mounted the
chair and looked over the densely packed mass of heads in front of him.

The ranger's keen glance swept to the wall and took in the target. A
slim lad of about fifteen stood against it with his arms outstretched.
Above and below each hand and on either side of the swelling throat
knives quivered in the frame wall. There was a flash of steel, and the
seventh knife sank into the wood so close to the crisp curls that a lock
hung by a hair, almost completely severed by the blade. The boy choked
back a scream, his big brown eyes dilating with terror.

The bully sipped at his highball and deliberately selected another
knife. To Bucky's swift inspection it was plain he had drunk too much
and that a very little slip might make an end of the boy. The fascinated
horror in the lad's gaze showed that he realized his danger.

"Now, f'ler cit'zens, I will continue for your 'musement by puttin' next
two knives on right and lef' sides of his cheek. Observe, pleash, that
these will land less than an inch from hish eyes. As the champion knife
thrower in the universe I claim--"

What he claimed his audience had to guess, for at this instant another
person took a part in the act. Bucky had stepped lightly across the
intervening space on the shoulders of the tightly packed crowd and had
dropped as lightly to the ground in front of the astonished champion of
the universe.

"I reckon you've about wore out that target. What's the matter with
trying a brand new one," drawled the ranger,