red by Hopalong to
indulge in a free drink.

Laramie was his next stopping place, and shortly after his arrival he
was requested to sing and dance by a local terror, who informed all
present that he was the only seventeen-buttoned rattlesnake in the cow
country. Hopalong, hurt and indignant at being treated like a common
tenderfoot, promptly knocked the terror down. After he had irrigated
several square feet of parched throats belonging to the audience he
again took up his journey and spent a day at Denver, where he managed to
avoid any further trouble.

Santa Fe loomed up before him several days later and he entered it
shortly before noon. At this time the old Spanish city was a bundle of
high-strung nerves, and certain parts of it were calculated to furnish
any and all kinds of excitement except revival meetings and church
fairs. Hopalong straddled a lively nerve before he had been in the city
an hour. Two local bad men, Slim Travennes and Tex Ewalt, desiring to
establish the fact that they were roaring prairie fires, attempted to
consume the placid and innocent stranger as he limped across the plaza
in search of a game of draw poker at the Black Hills Emporium, with the
result that they needed repairs, to the chagrin and disgust of their
immediate acquaintances, who endeavored to drown their mortification
and sorrow in rapid but somewhat wild gun play, and soon remembered that
they had pressing engagements elsewhere.

Hopalong reloaded his guns and proceeded to the Emporium, where he found
a game all prepared for him in every sense of the word. On the third
deal he objected to the way in which the dealer manipulated the cards,
and when the smoke cleared away he was the only occupant of the room,
except a dog belonging to the bartender that had intercepted a stray
bullet.

Hunting up the owner of the hound, he apologized for being the indirect
cause of the animal's death, deposited a sum of Mexican dollars in
that gentleman's palm and went on his way to Alameda, which he entered
shortly after dark, and where an insult, simmering in its uncalled-for
venom, met him as he limped across the floor of the local dispensary on
his way to the bar. There was no time for verbal argument and precedent
had established the manner of his reply, and his repartee was as quick
as light and most effective. Having resented the epithets he gave his
attention to the occupants of the room.

Smoke drifted over the table in an agitated