"'Don't I give you four stacks of reds an' a pony,' he says, 'to
reepair to that murderer an' floor-manage his obsequies? An' don't I
promise you eight stacks more when you reports with that outcast's
y'ears an' ha'r, as showin' good faith?'

"'C'rrect; every word,' says Curly Ben, lightin' a seegyar an then
leanin' his elbows on the bar, a heap onmoved.

"'Which I would admire to know, then,' says Moon, an' his eyes is
gettin' little an' hard, 'why you-all don't made good them
compacts.'

"'Well, I'll onfold the reasons an' make it as plain an' cl'ar an'
convincin' as a spade flush,' says Curly Ben. 'When I gets to this
yere victim of ours, I finds him to be a mighty profoose an' lavish
form of sport. The moment I'm finished explainin' to him my mission,
an' jest as I onlimbers my six-shooter to get him where he lives, he
offers me five thousand dollars to come back yere an' kill you.
Nacherally, after that, me an' this yere subject of our plot takes a
few drinks, talks it over, an' yere I be.'

"'But what be you aimin' to do?' asks Moon.

"'What be you aimin' to do?' responds Curly Ben. As I states, he's
shore the most ornery coyote!

"'I don't onderstand,' says Moon.

"'Why it's as obv'ous,' retorts Curly Ben, 'as the Fence Rail brand,
an' that takes up the whole side of a cow. The question now is, do