calls the bluff of one of the most deadly an' gamest
gents who ever crosses the Missouri--one who for nerve an' finish is a
even break with Cherokee Hall.

"'Follow me,' says Peets, frownin' on Coyote like a thunder cloud;
'I'll equip you with a weepon myse'f. I reckons now that your death
an' deestruction that a-way is after all the best trail out.

"Peets moves off a heap haughty, an' Coyote limps after him. Peets
goes over where his rooms is at. 'Take a cha'r,' says Peets, as they
walks in, an' Coyote camps down stiffly in a seat. Peets crosses to a
rack an' searches down a 8-inch Colt's. Then he turns towards Coyote.
'This yere discovery annoys me,' says Peets, an' his words comes cold
as ice, 'but now we're assembled, I finds that I've only got one gun.'

"'Well, sir,' says Coyote, gettin' up an' limpin' about in his nervous
way, his face workin' an' the sparks in his eyes beginnin' to leap into
flames; 'well, sir, may I ask what you aims to propose?'

"'I proposes to beef you right yere,' says Peets, as f'rocious as a
grizzly. 'Die, you miscreant!' An' Peets throws the gun on Coyote,
the big muzzle not a foot from his heart.

"Peets, as well as Dan an' Texas, who's enjoyin' the comedy through a
window, ondoubted looks for Coyote to wilt without a sigh. An' if he
had done so, the joke would have been both excellent an' complete. But
Coyote never wilts. He moves so quick no one ever does locate the
darkened recess of his garments from which he lugs out that knife; the
first p'inter any of 'em gets is that with the same breath wherein
Peets puts the six-shooter on him, Coyote's organised in full with a
bowie.

"'Make a centre shot, you villyun!' roars Coyote, an' straight as
adders he la'nches himse'f at Peets's neck.

"Son, it's the first an' last time that Doc Peets ever runs. An' he
don't run now, he flies. Peets comes pourin' through the door an' into
the street, with Coyote frothin' after him not a yard to spar'. The
best thing about the whole play is that Coyote's a cripple; it's this
yere element of lameness that lets Peets out. He can run thirty foot
to Coyote's one, an' the result occurs in safety by the breadth of a
ha'r.

"It takes two hours to explain to Coyote that this eepisode is humour,
an' to ca'm him an' get his emotions bedded down. At last, yoonited
Wolfville succeeds in beatin' the trooth into him, an' he permits Peets
to approach an' apol'gise.

"'An' you can gamble al