e
away.

"Bill and his pardner moseyed in an opposite direction a short
distance and held a parley. Bill was so nonplussed at the reception
that it took him some little time to collect his thoughts. When it
thoroughly dawned on him that the courtesies of the range had been
trampled under foot by a rank newcomer and himself snubbed, he was
aroused to action.

"'Let's go back,' said Bill to his pardner, 'and at least leave our
card. He might not like it if we didn't.'

"They went back and dismounted about ten steps from the door. They
shot every cartridge they both had, over a hundred between them,
through the door, fastened a card with their correct names on it, and
rode away. One of the boys that was working there, but was absent at
the time, says there was a number of canned tomato and corn crates
ranked up at the rear of the dug-out, in range with the door. This lad
says that it looked as if they had a special grievance against those
canned goods, for they were riddled with lead. That fellow lost enough
by that act to have fed all the chuck-line men that would bother him
in a year.

"Raneka made it a rule," continued Mouse, "to go down and visit the
Cheyennes every winter, sometimes staying a month. He could make
a good stagger at speaking their tongue, so that together with his
knowledge of the Spanish and the sign language he could converse with
them readily. He was perfectly at home with them, and they all liked
him. When he used to let his hair grow long, he looked like an Indian.
Once, when he was wrangling horses for us during the beef-shipping
season, we passed him off for an Indian on some dining-room girls.
George Wall was working with us that year, and had gone in ahead to
see about the cars and find out when we could pen and the like. We had
to drive to the State line, then, to ship. George took dinner at the
best hotel in the town, and asked one of the dining-room girls if he
might bring in an Indian to supper the next evening. They didn't know,
so they referred him to the landlord. George explained to that auger,
who, not wishing to offend us, consented. There were about ten girls
in the dining-room, and they were on the lookout for the Indian. The
next night we penned a little before dark. Not a man would eat at the
wagon; every one rode for the hotel. We fixed Bill up in fine shape,
put feathers in his hair, streaked his face with red and yellow, and
had him all togged out in buckskin, even to moc