you raise this yere gent? He raises you as I explains; now do you
quit, or tilt him, say, a thousand better?'

"'An' suppose I don't?' says Moon, sort o' figgerin' for a moment or
so. 'What do you reckon now would be your next move?'

"'Thar would be but one thing to do,' says Curly Ben mighty placid;
'I'd shorely take him. I would proceed with your destruction at
once, an' return to this agent gent an' accept that five thousand
dollar honorarium he offers.'

"Curly Ben is 'bad' plumb through, an' the sights, as they says in
the picturesque language of the Southwest, has been filed from his
guns for many years. Which this last is runnin' in Moon's head while
he talks with his disgustin' emmissary. Moon ain't out to take
chances on gettin' the worst of it. An' tharfore, Moon at once waxes
cunnin' a whole lot.

"'I'm a pore man,' he says, `but if it takes them teams of mine, to
the last tire an' the last hoof, I've got to have this agent's ha'r
an' y'ears. You camp around the Red Light awhile, Curly, till I go
over to the New York Store an' see about more money. I'll be back
while you're layin' out another drink.'

"Now it's not to the credit of Curly, as a crim'nal who puts thought
into his labors, that he lets Captain Moon turn his flank the easy
way he does. It displays Curly as lackin' a heap in mil'tary genius.
I don't presoome to explain it; an' it's all so dead onnacheral at
this juncture that the only s'lootion I'm cap'ble of givin' it is
that it's preedestinated that a-way. Curly not only lets Moon walk