Vhy don't you go ahead and do it, then?" Leon exclaimed. "Vat you
standing there for? Vhy don't you do it if you're so light on your
feet?"

"Well, I can!" Skinny argued, still hesitating.

"Den go ahead and chump--chump I told you--into the box!" Leon shouted
excitedly.

Skinny jumped. The eggs crushed under the heels of his riding boots. In
an instant the box was filled with a squashy mass of whites, yolks and
broken shells. Skinny pawed around until there wasn't a whole egg left
in the box.

At the first crunch Leon laughed hilariously.

"I knowed you'd lose!" he cackled. "Giff me the money!"

"You win, Leon!" the Ramblin' Kid laughed, handing over the wager.
"Skinny wasn't as delicate on his feet as he thought he was!"

"Thunderation, that's funny!" Skinny said soberly as he stepped out of
the box; "it wouldn't work that time! Something must have slipped!"

With a grin he calmly unwrapped the one-time white shirt and with it
began to wipe the slimy mess from his boots.

"The next time you won't be so smart!" Leon cried, then paused in
consternation, his eyes riveted on the scrambled mixture in the box.
"But mine eggs!" he exclaimed, suddenly suspicious. "Who pays for the
eggs? There vas twelve dozen--they are worth seventy cents a dozen--that
is more as eight dollars. Pay me for the eggs!"

"Pay, hell!" Skinny said. "I didn't agree to furnish no eggs! You won my
fifty cents and th' Ramblin' Kid gave it to you--"

"That's right, Leon," the Ramblin' Kid chuckled, "you got th'
four-bits--that's all you won!"

"But pay me--" Leon whined.

"I'll pay you, you dirty crook!" Skinny snapped as he slapped the
soppy, egg-splattered shirt in Leon's face. "I'll pay you with that! The
next time," he added as he and the Ramblin' Kid started down the
street--"anybody asks for a size fifteen shirt don't give them a sixteen
and a half!"

The day was spent idling about town waiting for Sabota to return so
Skinny could get some whisky and drown his disappointment in love in
intoxicated forgetfulness.

After supper Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid went to the picture
show--Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays were "movie nights" in Eagle
Butte--and saw a thrilling "wild-west" drama in which a band of Holstein
milk cows raced madly through an alfalfa field in a frenzied,
hair-raising stampede! When the show was over the Ramblin' Kid started
toward the livery barn.

"What you going to do?" Skinny queried.

"I was just goin'