“Let us pause to consider the shameful an’ burning indignity perpetrated upon us to-day!” continued Fisher, unheeding the bartender’s words.  “I, a peaceful, law-abiding citizen of this glorious Commonwealth, a free an’ equal member of a liberty-loving nation, a nation whose standard is, now and forever, ’Gimme liberty or gimme det’, a nation that stands for all the conceivable benefits that mankind may enjoy, a nation that scintillates pyrotechnically over the prostitution of power—­”

Bang! went the bartender’s fist on the counter.  “Hey!  Pause again!  Wait a minute!  Go back to ‘shameful an’ burning,’ and gimme a chance!”

“—­that stands for an even break, I, Nathaniel G. Fisher, have been deprived of one of my inalienable rights, the right of locomotion to distant an’ other parts. An’ I say, right here an’ now, that I won’t allow no spavined individual with thieving prehensils to—­”

“Has that pound-keeper got a rifle?” calmly interrupted the stranger, without a pang of remorse.

“He has.  Thus has it allus been with tyrants—­well armed, fortified by habit an’ tradition—­”

“Then you won’t get my gun, savvy?  We’ll find another way to get that cayuse as long as you feel that the marshal is yore hunting.  Besides, this man’s gall deserves some respect; it is genius, an’ to pump genius full of cold lead is to act rash.  Now, suppose you tell me when this auction is due to come off.”

“Oh, not for a week; he wants to run up the board an’ keep expenses.  Tyrants, such as him—­”

“Shore,” interposed the bartender, “he’ll make the expenses equal what he gets for the cayuse, no matter what it comes to.  An’ he’s the whole town, an’ the justice of the peace, besides.  What he says goes.”

“Well, I’m the Governor of the State an’ I’ve got the Supreme Court right here in my holster, so I reckon I can reverse his official acts an’ fill his legal opinions full of holes,” the stranger replied, laughing heartily.  “Bartender, will you help me play a little joke on His Honore, the Town,—­just a little harmless joke?”

“Well, that all depends whether the joke is harmless on me.  You see, he can shoot like the devil—­he allus knows when a man is going to draw, an’ gets his gun out first.  I ain’t got no respect for him, but I take off my hat to his gunplay, all right.”

The stranger smiled.  “Well, I can shoot a bit myself.  But I shore wish he’d hold that auction quick—­I’ve got to go on home without losing any more time.  Fisher, suppose you go down to the pound and dare that tumble-bug to hold the auction this afternoon.  Tell him that you’ll shoot him full of holes if he goes pulling off any auction to-day, an’ dare him to try it.  I want it to come off before night, an’ I reckon that’ll hustle it along.”

“I’ll do anything to get the edge on that thief,” replied Fisher, quickly, “but don’t you reckon I’d better tote a gun, going down an’ bearding such a thief in his own den?  You know I allus like to shoot when I’m being shot at.”