eeper turned
away.

"Thankin' you jest the same, Dan," he said, "I think I c'n walk back.
I'd as soon ride a tame tornado as that hoss."

He limped on down the road with Dan riding beside him. Black Bart
slunk at his heels, sniffing.

"Dan, I'm goin' to ask you a favour--an' a big one; will you do it for
me?"

"Sure," said Whistling Dan. "Anything I can."

"There's a skunk down there with a bad eye an' a gun that jumps out
of its leather like it had a mind of its own. He picked me for fifty
bucks by nailing a dollar I tossed up at twenty yards. Then he gets a
hundred because I couldn't ride this hoss of his. Which he's made a
plumb fool of me, Dan. Now I was tellin' him about you--maybe I was
sort of exaggeratin'--an' I said you could have your back turned when
the coins was tossed an' then pick off four dollars before they hit
the ground. I made it a bit high, Dan?"

His eyes were wistful.

"Nick four round boys before they hit the dust?" said Dan. "Maybe I
could, I don't know. I can't try it, anyway, Morgan, because I told
Dad Cumberland I'd never pull a gun while there was a crowd aroun'."

Morgan sighed; he hesitated, and then: "But you promised you'd do me a
favour, Dan?"

The rider started.

"I forgot about that--I didn't think----"

"It's only to do a shootin' trick," said Morgan eagerly. "It ain't
pullin' a gun on any one. Why, lad, if you'll tell me you got a ghost
of a chance, I'll bet every cent in my cash drawer on you agin that
skunk! You've give me your word, Dan."

Whistling Dan shrugged his shoulders.

"I've given you my word," he said, "an' I'll do it. But I guess Dad
Cumberland'll be mighty sore on me."

A laugh rose from the crowd at Morgan's place, which they were nearing
rapidly. It was like a mocking comment on Dan's speech. As they came
closer they could see money changing hands in all directions.

"What'd you do to my hoss?" asked Jim Silent, walking out to meet
them.

"He hypnotized him," said Hal Purvis, and his lips twisted over yellow
teeth into a grin of satisfaction.

"Git out of the saddle damn quick," growled Silent. "It ain't nacheral
he'd let you ride him like he was a plough-hoss. An' if you've tried
any fancy stunts, I'll----"

"Take it easy," said Purvis as Dan slipped from the saddle without
showing the slightest anger. "Take it easy. You're a bum loser. When
I seen the black settle down to his work," he explained to Dan with
another grin, "I knowed he'd na