e before I can reload."

"Yer kickin' up an awful stink fer a dollar an' four bits."

"'Tain't the money, it's the principle of the thing. An' besides, I
aimed to pull a hell-winder of a jamboree--an' I'm doin' it."

"You ain't helpin' yer case none by raisin' a rookus like this. Come out
an' give yerself up. All there is agin you is a fine an' a little
damages."

"How much?"

"We'll make it fifty dollars' fine, an' you'll have to talk to Pete
Barras about the damages."

The Texan laughed derisively: "Guess again, you short horn! I've got
more money than that!"

"You comin' out, or I got to go in there an' git you?"

"I ain't comin' out, an' you ain't comin' in here an' get me," defied
the cowboy; "you ain't got the guts to--you an' your twenty gun-fighters
to boot! Just you stick your classic profile around the corner of that
wall an' I'll shoot patterns in it!"

"You can't git away. We've got yer horse!"

"If I was a posse I'd surround you an' string you up for a bunch of
horse-thieves!"

"What you goin' to do about it?"

"I'm standin' pat--me. What you goin' to do?"

"Come on out, hands up, an' submit to arrest before you git in too
deep."

"There ain't a marshal in Montana can arrest me!"

"What's yer name?"

"Hydrophobia B. Tarantula! I'm a curly wolf! I can't be handled 'cause
I'm full of quills! I've got seventeen rattles an' a button, an' I'm
right now coiled!"

"Yer drunk as hell," growled the marshal, "wait till you git sober an'
you won't feel so damn hard."

"You're goin' to miss some sleep waitin', 'cause there's seventeen
quarts in sight, without countin' the barrel goods an' beer."

For answer the exasperated marshal sent a bullet crashing into the wall
high above the Texan's head, and the shot was immediately followed by a
volley from the crowd outside, the bullets slivering the woodwork, or
burying themselves harmlessly in the barricade of beer-kegs.

"This saloon's gettin' all scratched up, the way you ruffians are
carryin' on," called the Texan, when the noise had subsided, "but if
it's shootin' you want, divide these here up amongst you!" Reaching
around a keg, he emptied a gun through the window, then reloaded, and
poured himself another drink.

"The main question is," he announced judicially to himself, as he
contemplated the liquor in the glass, "I've drunk one quart already, now
shall I get seventeen times drunker'n I am, or shall I stay drunk
seventeen times as long?