plug of tobacco which he produced from his chaps. "Anyhow, they
wouldn't be no loss if they didn't. "Member what Pie said?"

Hopalong looked straight ahead, and when he spoke the words sounded
as though he had bitten them off: "Yore right, Buck, but I gits first
try at Thirsty. He's my meat an' I'll plug th' fellow what says he
ain't. Damn him!"

The others replied by applying their spurs, and in a short time they
dismounted before the Nugget and Rope. Thirsty wouldn't have a chance
to not care how he dealt the cards.

Buck and Red moved quickly through the crowd, speaking fast and
earnestly. When they returned to where they had left their friend they
saw him half a block away and they followed slowly, one on either side
of the street. There would be no bullets in his back if they knew what
they were about, and they usually did.

As Hopalong neared the corner, Thirsty and his two brothers turned
it and saw him. Thirsty said something in a low voice, and the other
two walked across the street and disappeared behind the store. When
assured that they were secure, Thirsty walked up to a huge boulder on
the side of the street farthest from the store and turned and faced
his enemy, who approached rapidly until about five paces away, when
he slowed up and finally stopped.

For a number of seconds they sized each other up, Hopalong quiet and
deliberate with a deadly hatred; Thirsty pale and furtive with a
sensation hitherto unknown to him. It was Right meeting Wrong, and
Wrong lost confidence. Often had Thirsty Jones looked death in the