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Billy took off his hat and scratched his head

"Funny," he thought, "how a girl and poetry can get a tough nut likeout in back of Kelly's 'ud say if they seen as goin' on in my bean just now They'd call me Lizzy, eh? Well, they wouldn't call ettin' soft in the head, but I'ood with hts and so Billy had unconsciously permitted his pony to drop into a lazy walk There was no need for haste anyhow No one knew yet that the bank had been robbed, or at least so Billy argued He ht differently upon the subject of haste could he have had a glimpse of the horseman in his rear--twoup the distance at a keen gallop, while he strained his eyes across the er search for his quarry

So absorbed was Billy Byrne in his reflections that his ears were deaf to the pounding of the hoofs of the pursuer's horse upon the soft dust of the dry road until Bridge was little more than a hundred yards froure of the fugitive in full view and hisrapidly with seductive visions of the one-thousand dollars reward--one-thousand dollars Mex, perhaps, but still quite enough to excite pleasant thoughts At the first glie had reined his ht thereby be lessened He had drawn his revolver fro spurs to his horse for a sudden dash upon the fugitive when the man ahead, finally attracted by the noise of the other's approach, turned in his saddle and saw hie's co-like in his quickness, drew and fired The bullet raked Bridge's hat from his head but left him unscathed

Billy had wheeled his pony around until he stood broadside toward Bridge The latter fired scarce a second after Billy's shot had pinged so perilously close--fired at a perfect target but fifty yards away

At the sound of the report the robber's horse reared and plunged, then, wheeling and tottering high upon its hind feet, fell backward Billy, realizing that his mount had been hit, tried to throw himself from the saddle; but until the very moment that the beast toppled over the e belt which, as the anih horn of the Mexican saddle