an he had been with knew it from words which she had overheard
while on her way to the grounds with him. His friends knew it and would
laugh him into forgetfulness as the fool who boasted. Now he understood
why he had lost so many friends: they had attempted what he had sworn to
attempt. Look where he would he could see only a smoke-wrapped demon who
moved and shot with a speed incredible. There was reason why Slim had
died. There was reason why Porous and Silent had paled when they learned
of their mission.

He hated his conspicuous clothes and his pretty broncho, and the
woman who had gotten him to squander his money, and who was doubtless
convulsed with laughter at his expense. He worked himself into a passion
which knew no fear and he ran for the streets of the town, there to
make good his boast or to die. When he found his enemy he felt himself
grasped with a grip of steel and Buck Peters swung him around and
grinned maliciously in his face:

"You plaything!" hoarsely whispered the foreman. "Why don't yu get away
while yu can? Why do yu want to throw yoreself against certain death? I
don't want my pleasure marred by a murder, an' that is what it will
be if yu makes a gun-play at Hopalong. He'll shoot yu as he did yore
buttons. Take yore pretty clothes an' yore pretty cayuse an' go where
this is not known, an' if ever again yu feels like killing Hopalong, get
drunk an' forget it."

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hopalong Cassidy's Rustler Round-Up, by
Clarence Edward Mulford

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOPALONG CASSIDY ***

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