“‘Make a centre shot, you villyun!’ roars Coyote, an’ straight as adders he la’nches himse’f at Peets’s neck.

“Son, it’s the first an’ last time that Doc Peets ever runs.  An’ he don’t run now, he flies.  Peets comes pourin’ through the door an’ into the street, with Coyote frothin’ after him not a yard to spar’.  The best thing about the whole play is that Coyote’s a cripple; it’s this yere element of lameness that lets Peets out.  He can run thirty foot to Coyote’s one, an’ the result occurs in safety by the breadth of a ha’r.

“It takes two hours to explain to Coyote that this eepisode is humour, an’ to ca’m him an’ get his emotions bedded down.  At last, yoonited Wolfville succeeds in beatin’ the trooth into him, an’ he permits Peets to approach an’ apol’gise.

“‘An’ you can gamble all the wolves you’ll ever kill an’ skin,’ says Doc Peets, as he asks Coyote to forgive an’ forget, ’that this yere is the last time I embarks in jests of a practical character or gives way to humour other than the strickly oral kind.  Barkeep, my venerated friend, yere will have a glass of water; but you give me Valley Tan.’”

CHAPTER XXI.

Long Ago on the Rio Grande.

“Which books that a-way,” observed the Old Cattleman, “that is, story-books, is onfrequent in Wolfville.”  He was curiously examining Stevenson’s “Treasure Island,” that he had taken from my hand.  “The nearest approach to a Wolfville cirk’latin’ library I recalls is a copy of ‘Robinson Crusoe,’ an’ that don’t last long, as one time when Texas Thompson leaves it layin’ on a cha’r outside while he enters the Red Light for the usual purpose, a burro who’s loafin’ loose about the street, smells it, tastes it, approoves of it, an’ tharupon devours it a heap.  After that I don’t notice no volumes in the outfit, onless it’s some drug books that Doc Peets has hived over where he camps.  It’s jest as well, for seein’ a gent perusin’ a book that a-way, operates frequent to make Dan Boggs gloomy; him bein’ oneddicated like I imparts to you-all yeretofore.

“Whatever do we do for amoosements?  We visits the Dance Hall; not to dance, sech frivol’ties bein’ for younger an’ less dignified sports.  We goes over thar more to give our countenance an’ endorsements to Hamilton who runs the hurdy-gurdy, an’ who’s a mighty proper citizen.  We says ‘How!’ to Hamilton, libates, an’ mebby watches ’em ’balance all,’ or ‘swing your partners,’ a minute or two an’ then proceeds.  Then thar’s Huggins’s Bird Cage Op’ry House, an’ now an’ then we-all floats over thar an’ takes in the dramy.  But mostly we camps about the Red Light; the same bein’ a common stampin’-ground.  It’s thar we find each other; an’ when thar’s nothin’ doin’, we upholds the hours tellin’ tales an’ gossipin’ about cattle an’ killin’s, an’ other topics common to a cow country.  Now an’ then, thar’s a visitin’ gent in town who can onfold a story.  In sech event he’s made a lot of, an’ becomes promptly the star of the evenin’.