gh to
hold up a train an' kill any feller that puts up a fight, but nary one o'
them has nerve enough to go into a woman's sock after her bank roll!"

Kit Joy was a cowboy working on the X ranch on the Gila. He was a
youngster little over twenty. It was said of him that he had left behind
him in Texas more or less history not best written in black ink, but
whether this was true or not I do not know. Certain it is that he was a
reckless dare-devil, always foremost in the little amenities cowboys
loved to indulge in when they came to town such as shooting out the
lights in saloons and generally "shelling up the settlement,"--which
meant taking a friendly shot at about everything that showed up on the
streets. Nevertheless, Kit in the main was thoroughly good-natured and
amiable.

Early in his career in Silver City it was observed that perhaps his most
distinguishing trait was curiosity. Ultimately his curiosity got him
into trouble, as it does most people who indulge it. His first display
of curiosity in Silver was a very great surprise, even to those who knew
him best. It was also a disappointment.

A tenderfoot, newly arrived, appeared on the streets one day in
knickerbockers and stockings. Kit was in town and was observed watching
the tenderfoot. To the average cowboy a silk top hat was like a red flag
to a bull, so much like it in fact that the hat was usually lucky to
escape with less than half a dozen holes through it. But here in these
knee-breeches and stockings was something much more bizarre and
exasperating than a top hat, from a cowboy's point of view. The effect
on Kit was therefore closely watched by the bystanders.

No one fancied for a moment that Kit would do less than undertake to
teach the tenderfoot "the cowboy's hornpipe," not a particularly graceful
but a very quick step, which is danced most artistically when a bystander
is shooting at the dancer's toes. Indeed, the ball was expected to open
early. To every one's surprise and disappointment, it did not. Instead,
Kit dropped in behind the tenderfoot and began to follow him about
town--followed him for at least an hour. Every one thought he was
studying up some more unique penalty for the tenderfoot. But they were
wrong, all wrong.

As a matter of fact. Kit was so far consumed with curiosity that he
forgot everything else, forgot even to be angry. At last, when he could
stand it no longer, he walked up to the tenderfoot, detaine