agent who abandons his relatif to them hostiles.'

"Wolfville listens to Captain Moon's hist'ry of his wrongs; but
aside from them eloocidations of Enright, no gent says much. Thar's
some games where troo p'liteness consists in sayin' nothin' an'
knowin' less. But the most careless hand in camp can see that Moon's
aimin' at reprisals.

"This Curly Ben is trackin' about Wolfville at the time. Curly ain't
what you-all would call a elevated character. He's a rustler of
cattle, an' a smuggler of Mexican goods, an' Curly an' the Yoonited
States marshals has had more turn-ups than one. But Curly is dead
game; an' so far, he manages to either out-luck or out-shoot them
magistrates; an', as I says, when Moon comes wanderin' in that time
mournin' for his nephy, Curly has been projectin' about camp for
like it's a week.

"Moon sort o' roominates on the play, up an' down, for a day or so,
makin' out a plan. He don't want to go back himse'f; the agent knows
him, an' them Injuns knows him, an' it's even money, if he comes
pokin' into their bailiwick, they'll tumble to his errant. In sech
events, they're shore doo to corral him an' give them ants another
holiday. It's the ant part that gives pore Captain Moon a chill.

"'I'll take a chance on a bowie knife,' says Moon to Dan Boggs,--
Dan, bein' a sympathetic gent an' takin' nacherally to folks in
trouble, has Moon's confidence from the jump; 'I'll take a chance on
a bowie knife; an' as for a gun, I simply courts the resk. But then
ants dazzles me--I lay down to ants, an' I looks on it as no
disgrace to a gent to say so.' "'Ants shorely do sound poignant,'