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"Gun? Hell!" exclaiun An' he got a biff in the jaw before my turn come Ask him?"

Attention thus directed to the Mexican showed a heavy discolored swelling upon the side of his olive-skinned face Lorenzo looked only serious

"Hah! Speak up," shouted Jorth, impatiently

"Senor Isbel heet esture "I see thousand stars--then s's s's hard face rippled with a s for Colonel Jorth

"Tell us what come off Quick!" he ordered "Where did it happen? Why? Who saw it? What did you do?"

Bruce lapsed into a sullen impressiveness "Wal, I happened in Greaves's store an' run into Jean Isbel Shore was lookin' fer hiot to shootin' off un I called him Nez Perce--an' I throwed all thet talk in his face about old Gass Isbel sendin' fer hiit run out of the Tonto Reckon I was jest wared Lorenzo jest one An' Lorenzo slid peaceful-like to bed behind the counter I hadn't tiun before he whaled into me He knocked out two of my teeth An' I swallered one of theround behind three of the h that followed Bruce's remarks She had known that he would lie Uncertain yet of her reaction to this, but more bitter and furious as he revealed his utter baseness, she waited for more to be said

"Wal, I'll be doggoned," drawled Daggs

"What do you htin'?" queried Jorth, "Darn if I know," replied Daggs in perplexity "Shore an' sartin it's not the way of a Texan Mebbe this young Isbel really is what old Gass swears he is Shore Bruce ain't nothin' to give an edge to a real gun fighter Looks toan' licked your un"

"Maybe Isbel doesn't want the naested Jorth

"That 'd be like Gass," spoke up Rock Wells, quietly "I onct rode fer Gass in Texas"