n on that little old ha'r
copper of his.

"It's not only my beliefs, but likewise the opinions of sech joodicial
sports as Enright, Peets, an' Colonel Sterett, that this maverick,
Silver Phil, is all sorts of a crim'nal. An' I wouldn't wonder if he's
a pure rustler that a-way; as ready to stand up a stage as snake a play
at farobank. This idee settles down on the Wolfville intell'gence on
the heels of a vicissitoode wherein Dan Boggs performs, an' which gets
pulled off over in the Bird Cage Op'ry House. Jack Moore ain't thar
none that time. Usual, Jack is a constant deevotee of the dramy.
Jack's not only a first-nighter, he comes mighty clost to bein' a
every-nighter. But this partic'lar evenin' when Boggs performs, Jack's
rummagin' about some'ers else.

"If Jack's thar, it's even money he'd a-had that second shot instead of
Boggs; in which event, the results might have been something graver
than this yere minoote wound which Boggs confers. I'm confident Jack
would have cut in with the second shot for sech is his offishul system.
Jack more'n once proclaims his position.

"'By every roole of law,' says Jack at epocks when he declar's himse'f,
'an' on all o'casions, I, as kettle-tender to the Stranglers, is
entitled to the first shot. When I uses the term 'o'casion,' I would
be onderstood as alloodin' to affairs of a simply social kind, an' not
to robberies, hold-ups, hoss-larcenies, an' other an' sim'lar
transactions in spec'latif crime when every gent defends his own.
Speakin' social, however, I reasserts that by every roole of guidance,
I'm entitled to the first shot. Which a doo regyard for these plain
rights of mine would go far to freein' Wolfville upper circles of the
bullets which occurs from time to time, an' which even the most
onconventional admits is shore a draw-back. All I can add as a
closer,' concloods Jack, 'is that I'll make haste to open on any sport
who transgresses these fiats an' goes to shootin' first. Moreover,
it's likely that said offender finds that when I'm started once, what I
misses in the orig'nal deal I'll make up in the draw, an' I tharfore
trusts that none will prove so sooicidal as to put me to the test.'

"This Bird Cage Op'ry House evenin', however, Jack is absent a heap.
Dan Boggs is present, an' is leanin' back appreciatin' the show an' the
Valley Tan plenty impartial. Dan likes both an' is doin' 'em even
jestice. Over opp'site to Dan is a drunken passel of sports fro