picked his way toward El Paso for a game at Faro Dan's.

The sheriff sat in his easy chair one night some three weeks later,
gravely engaged in rolling a cigarette. His arms were practically
well, the wounds being in the fleshy parts. He was a philosopher and
was disposed to take things easy, which accounted for his being in his
official position for fifteen years. A gentleman at the core, he was
well educated and had visited a goodly portion of the world. A book of
Horace lay open on his knees and on the table at his side lay a
shining new revolver, Hopalong having carried off his former weapon.
He read aloud several lines and in reaching for a light for his
cigarette noticed the new six-shooter. His mind leaped from Horace to
Hopalong, and he smiled grimly at the latter's promise to call.

Glancing up, his eyes fell on a poster which conveyed the information
in Spanish and in English that there was offered

+--------------------------------------+
| |
| FIVE HUNDRED PESOS |
| REWARD |
| For Hopalong Cassidy, of the Ranch |
| Known as the Bar-20, Texas, U. S. A. |
| |
+--------------------------------------+

and which gave a good description of that gentleman.

Sighing for the five hundred, he again took up his book and was lost
in its pages when he heard a knock, rather low and timid. Wearily