" He drank the liquor and returned the glass to
the bar, "guess I'll just let Nature take her course," he opined, and
glanced about him quizzically. "I mistrusted this wasn't goin' to be no
prosaic jubilee, but what I'm wonderin' is, how's it goin' to come out?
'Tain't likely anyone'll get hurt, 'cause they can't hit me, an' I don't
want to hit them. But, this is goin' to get monotonous sometime an' I'll
want to leave here. They've got my horse, an' it's a cinch I ain't goin'
away afoot. Guess I'll have to borrow one like Ol' Bat did down to Las
Vegas an' get plumb out of the country. An' there's another reason I
can't linger to get venerable amongst my present peaceful surroundin's.
When Ol' Bat finds I've quit the outfit he'll trail me down, just as
sure as I'm goin' to take another drink, an' when he does, he'll----"

Once more the voice of the marshal sounded from without: "Hey, young
feller, I'm willin' to go half way with you----"

"Half of nothin's nothin'!" replied the Texan, "I ain't goin' nowhere!"

"You better listen to reason an' give yerself up. If you do we let you
off with a hundred dollar fine, an' damages--if you don't, I'm goin' to
charge you with shootin' to kill, an' send you up to Deer Lodge fer a
year. You got just one minute to think it over. It's gettin' dark an' I
ain't had no supper."

"Me neither. You go on ahead an' get yours first, an' then hurry back
an' let me go."

"I ain't foolin'! What you goin' to do?"

"Shoot to kill--if that's what I'm charged with," and the marshal leaped
back as a bullet sung past his head.

As darkness gathered the crowd poured volley after volley into the
saloon and the Texan replied sparingly, and between shots he drank
whisky. It was dark inside the building and the cowboy could see the
flash of the guns in the street. Suddenly the bombardment ceased.

"Wonder what they're up to now," he muttered, peering between the kegs.
He was finding it hard to concentrate his thoughts, and passed a hand
across his forehead as if to brush away the cobwebs that were clogging
his brain. "I've got to out-guess 'em!" He shook himself fiercely: "Le's
see, if they rush me in the dark, some of 'em's due to fall down cellar
where Ike left the trap open, an' some of 'em's goin' to get mixed up
with bottles an' beer-kegs--if I don't shoot they won't know where I am,
an' while they're ontanglin' themselves maybe I can slip away in the
dark."

A light flared suddenly beyond t