ed, "my brother had a hasty
temper, and he drew first---but Gage fired the killing shot."

"So that the law would say that Gage fired in self-defense, eh?"

"That's what a coroner's jury did say," Jim admitted angrily.
"But my brother was a young fellow, and hot-headed. Gage knew
he could provoke the boy into firing, and then, when the boy missed,
Gage drilled him through the head."

"I don't want to say anything unkind, Jim," Reade went on,
thoughtfully. "Please don't misunderstand me. But, as I
understand the affair, if your brother hadn't been carrying a
pistol he wouldn't have been killed?"

"Perhaps not," Ferrers grudgingly admitted.

"Then the killing came about through the bad practice of carrying a
revolver?"

"Bad practice!" snorted Jim. "Well, if that's a bad practice
more'n half the men in the state have the vice."

"Popular custom may not make a thing right," argued Reade.

"But what are you going to do when the men who have a grudge against
you pack guns?" Jim queried, opening his eyes very wide.

"I've had a few enemies---bad ones, too, some of them," Tom answered
slowly. "Yet I've always refused to carry an implement of murder,
even when I've been among rough enemies. And yet I'm alive.
If I had carried a pistol ever since I came West I'm almost certain
that I'd be dead by this time."

"But if you won't carry a gun, and let folks suspect you of being
a white-flagger, then you get the reputation of being a coward,"
argued Ferrers.

"Then I suppose I've been voted a coward long ago," Reade nodded.

"No, by the Great Nugget, you're not a coward," retorted Ferrers.
"No man who has seen you in a tough place will ever set you down
for a coward."

"Yet I must be, if I don't tote a gun in a wild country," smiled
Reade.

"But to go back to the case of that good-for-nothing, Dolph Gage,"
Jim Ferrers resumed. "You advise me to forget that he shot at me?"

"Oh, no, I don't," Tom retorted quietly. "But you don't have to go
out and take your own revenge. There are laws in this state,
aren't there?"

"Of course."

"And officers to execute the laws"

"To be sure."

"Then why not go back to Dugout City, there to lay information
against Gage. That done, the sheriff's officers will have to
do the hunting. Having nothing personal against the officers,
Gage will very likely hold up his hands when the officers find
him, and then go back with them as peaceable as a lamb. Jim,
you want to