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"It's shore powerful strange how he hates thet handle Las Vegas," went on Roy, imperturbably
"Roy, tell me what he did--what TOM did--or I'll scream," cried Bo
"Miss Helen, did you ever see the likes of thet girl?" asked Roy, appealing to Helen
"No, Roy, I never did," agreed Helen "But please--please tell us what has happened"
Roy grinned and rubbed his hands together in a dark delight, ale es had not been tooher uncle say that a real Westerner hated nothing so hard as the swaggering desperado, the un colors of the West
Roy leaned his lithe, tall forirls
"When I rode out after Las Vegas I seen hian Roy, rapidly "An' I seen another s, only I didn't know it then Las Vegas rode up to the store, where soin' round, an' he spoke to them When I come up they was all headin' for Turner's saloon I seen a dozen hosses hitched to the rails Las Vegas rode on But I got off at Turner's an' went in with the bunch Whatever it was Las Vegas said to theive him away Pretty soon ot to be 'ether, I reckon Jeff Mulvey was there with his pards They had been drinkin' sorta free An' I didn't like the way Mulvey watched me So I went out an' into the store, but kept a-lookin' for Las Vegas He wasn't in sight But I seen Riggs ridin' up Now, Turner's is where Riggs hangs out an' does his braggin' He looked powerful deep an' thoughtful, dismounted sloithout seein' the unusual number of hosses there, an' then he slouches into Turner's No as rode down there like a streak An' just as quick he was off an' through thet door"
Roy paused as if to gain force or to choose his words His tale now appeared all directed to Bo, who gazed at him, spellbound, a fascinated listener
"Before I got to Turner's door--an' thet was only a little ways--I heard Las Vegas yell Did you ever hear hiot the wildest yell of any cow-puncher I ever beard Quicklike I opened the door an' slipped in There was Riggs an' Las Vegas alone in the center of the big saloon, with the crowd edgin' to the walls an' slidin' back of the bar Riggs hiter 'n a dead as yelled at hi All of a sudden every ed HE was Thet tis