f these things, however. The soul-sick incentive was
there, and if he had been a little less of a reasoning animal and a
little less sophisticated, he would probably have forsworn strong drink
just as he forswore all responsibility for his inadvertent marriage. His
reason and his experience saved him from cluttering his conscience with
broken vows, although he did yield to the impulse of change to the
extent of leaving Sunset while yet the inhabitants were fortifying
themselves for the ardors of the day with breakfast and some wild
prophecies concerning Ford's next outbreak.

Apprehension over Bill's immediate future was popular amongst his
friends, Ford's sardonic reference to manslaughter and bounty being
repeated often enough in Bill's presence to keep that peace-loving
gentleman in a state of trepidation which he sought to hide behind vague
warnings.

"He better think twicet before he comes bothering around me, by hokey!"
Bill would mutter darkly. "I've stood a hull lot from Ford; I like 'im,
when he's himself. But I've stood about as much as a man can be expected
to stand. And he better look out! That's all I got to say--he better
look out!" Bill himself, it may be observed incidentally, spent the
greater portion of that day in "looking out." He was careful not to sit
down with his back to a door, for instance, and was keenly interested
when a knob turned beneath unseen fingers, and plainly relieved when
another than Ford entered his presence. Bill's mustache was nearly
pulled from its roots, that day--but that is not important to the story,
which has to do with Ford Campbell, sometime the possessor of a neat
legacy in coin, later a rider of the cattle ranges, last presiding
genius over the poker table in Scotty's back room in Sunset, always an
important factor--and too often a disturbing element--in any community
upon which he chose to bestow his dynamic presence.

Scotty hoped that Ford would show up for business when the lamps were
lighted, that night. There had been some delicacy on the part of Ford's
acquaintances that day in the matter of calling upon him at the shack.
They believed--and hoped--that Ford was "sleeping it off," and there was
a unanimous reluctance to disturb his slumbers. Sandy, indulging himself
in the matter of undisturbed spinal tremors over "The Haunted Chamber,"
had not left shelter, save when the more insistent shiverings of chilled
flesh recalled him from his pleasurable nerve-crimpli