Silent took his place with the four dollars in his hand.

"Are you ready?" he called.

"Let her go!" said Dan, apparently without the least excitement.

Jim Silent threw the coins, and he threw them so as to increase his
chances as much as possible. A little snap of his hand gave them a
rapid rotary motion so that each one was merely a speck of winking
light. He flung them high, for it was probable that Whistling Dan
would wait to shoot until they were on the way down. The higher he
threw them the more rapidly they would be travelling when they crossed
the level of the markman's eye.

As a shout proclaimed the throwing of the coins, Dan whirled, and it
seemed to the bystanders that a revolver exploded before he was fully
turned; but one of the coins never rose to the height of the throw.
There was a light "cling!" and it spun a dozen yards away. Two more
shots blended almost together; two more dollars darted away in
twinkling streaks of light. One coin still fell, but when it was a
few inches from the earth a six-shooter barked again and the fourth
dollar glanced sidewise into the dust. It takes long to describe the
feat. Actually, the four shots consumed less than a second of time.

"That last dollar," said Dan, and his soft voice was the first sound
out of the silence, "wasn't good. It didn't ring true. Counterfeit?"

It seemed that no one heard his words. The men were making a wild
scramble for the dollars. They dived into the dust for them, rising