s.
Even the customers in the booths chuckled at Kid Wolf's discomfiture.
The captain's laugh was the loudest of all.

"Six shots the senor took," he guffawed, "and missed with them all!
Ah, didn't I tell you that the Americans are bluffers, like their game
of poker? This one carries two guns and cannot use even one!"

Kid Wolf smiled quietly. A faint look of amusement was in his eyes.

"Maybe," he drawled, "yo'-all had bettah look at that hat."

Curiously, and still smiling, some of the loiterers went over to
examine the target. When they had done so, they cried out in
amazement. It was true that just one bullet hole showed in the front
of the sombrero. The captain's shot had drilled that one. Naturally
all had supposed that the gringo had missed. Such was not the case.
All of Kid Wolf's six bullets had passed through the captain's bullet
mark! For the back of the hat was torn by the marks of seven slugs!
Some one held the sombrero aloft, and the excited crowd roared its
approval and enthusiasm. Never had such shooting been seen within the
old city of Santa Fe.

The Spanish captain, after his first gasp of surprise, had nothing to
say. Chagrin and disgust were written over his face. If ever a man
was crestfallen, the captain was. He hated to be made a fool of, and
this quiet man from Texas had certainly accomplished it.

He was about to slink off when Kid Wolf drawled after him:

"Oh, captain! Pahdon, but haven't yo' forgotten somethin'?"

"What do you mean?" snapped the other.

"Yo' were goin' to pay for this man's sombrero, I believe," said Kid
Wolf softly, "in gold."

"Bah!" snarled the officer. "That I refuse to do!"

The Texan's hand snapped down to his right Colt. A blaze of flame
leaped from the region of his hip. Along with the crashing roar of the
explosion came a sharp, metallic twang.

The bullet had neatly clipped away the captain's belt buckle! A yell
of laughter rang out on all sides. For the captain's trousers,
suddenly unsupported, slipped down nearly to his knees. With a cry of
dismay, the disgruntled officer seized them frantically and held them
up.

"Reach down in those," drawled the Texan, "and see if yo' can't find
that piece of gold!"

The officer, white with rage in which hearty fear was mingled, obeyed
with alacrity, pulling out a gold coin and handing it, with an oath, to
the peon whose hat he had ruined.

"_Muchas gracias_," murmured Kid Wolf, reholstering