ess to enjoy life."

"Boy, I've never known the happiness outside of the wilderness that I
have in it. What you kill there is what was made for killing--the food
we need. What one kills among civilization is only too apt to be of his
own kind."

And Bill shuddered as if he thought of the many he had sent into
untimely graves.

"Stuff, Bill! You're half crazed by your dramatic trip. You've acted so
much, that reality comes strange. Let's go out to camp and have a talk
about what is ahead of us."

"Not till I buy a horse, Jack. I want a good horse under me once more;
I've ridden on cars and steamboats till my legs ache for a change."

"There's a sale's stable close by. Let's go and see what stock is
there," said Sam Chichester.

"Agreed!" cried all hands, and soon Bill and his friends were at the
stable, looking at some dozen or more horses which were for sale.

"There's the beauty I want," said Wild Bill, pointing to a black horse,
full sixteen hands high, and evidently a thoroughbred. "Name your price,
and he is my meat!"

"That horse isn't for sale now. He was spoken for an hour ago, or maybe
less by a cash customer of mine--a red-haired chap from Texas."

_"Red-haired_ chap from Texas!" muttered Bill, "Red-haired cusses from
Texas are always crossin' my trail. That chap from Abilene was a Texas
cattle-man, with hair as red as fire. Where is your cash customer, Mr.
Liveryman?"

"Gone out riding somewhere," replied the stable-keeper.

"When he comes back, tell him Wild Bill wants that horse, and I reckon
he'll let Wild Bill buy him, if he knows when he is well off! I wouldn't
give two cusses and an amen for all the rest of the horses in your
stable; I want _him!_"

"I'll tell Jack," said the stableman; "but I don't think it will make
much odds with him. He has as good as bought the horse, for he offered
me the money on my price, but I couldn't change his five hundred-dollar
treasury note. It'll take more than a name to scare him. He always goes
fully armed."

"You tell him what I said, and that I'm a-coming here at sunset for that
horse," said Bill, and he strode away, followed by his crowd.

An hour later the auburn-haired man from Texas reined in his own horse,
a fiery mustang from his own native plains, in front of the stable.

Though the horse was all afoam with sweat, showing that it had been
ridden far and fast; it did not pant or show a sign of weariness. It was
of a stock which will run from r