sheriff's wound was dressed by the companions of the dead Johnny, and how
he was safely dismissed with honor, as between brave men, and how
afterwards he hunted those same men down one by one.

It was quite a long story, but the audience followed it with a breathless
interest.

"Yes, sir," concluded the sheriff, as the applause of murmurs fell off.
"And from yarns like that one you wouldn't never figure it that I was the
son of a minister brung up plumb peaceful. Now, would you?"

And again, to the intense joy of Vance, it was Terry who brought the
subject back, and this time the subject of all subjects which Elizabeth
dreaded, and which Vance longed for.

"Tell us how you came to branch out, Sheriff Minter?"

"It was this way," began the sheriff, while Elizabeth cast at Vance a
glance of frantic and weary appeal, to which he responded with a gesture
which indicated that the cause was lost.

"I was brung up mighty proper. I had a most amazing lot of prayers at the
tip of my tongue when I wasn't no more'n knee-high to a grasshopper. But
when a man has got a fire in him, they ain't no use trying to smother it.
You either got to put water on it or else let it burn itself out.

"My old man didn't see it that way. When I got to cutting up he'd try to
smother it, and stop me by saying: 'Don't!' Which don't accomplish
nothing with young gents that got any spirit. Not a damn thing--asking
your pardon, ladies! Well, sirs, he kept me in harness, you might say,