ght pause; "but I don't see why I
shouldn't carry the bag part of the time."

"Had you doubted my honor," continued Mosely with a grand air, "though
you are my friend, I should have been compelled to take your life. I
never take any back talk. I chaw up any one who insults me. I'm a
regular out-and-out desperado, I am, when I'm riled."

"I've heard all that before," said Tom Hadley, rather impatiently.

It was quite true, for this was the style in which Bill Mosely was
accustomed to address new acquaintances. It had not succeeded with Jake
Bradley, who had enough knowledge of human nature to detect the falsity
of Mosely's pretensions and the sham character of his valor.

"You've heard it before," said Mosely, severely, "but ain't it true?
That's what I ask you, Tom Hadley."

"I should say so," slipped out almost unconsciously from the lips of the
habitual echo.

"'Tis well," said Mosely, waving his hand. "You know it and you believe
it. I'm a bad man to insult, I am. I generally chaw up them that stand
in my way."

Tom Hadley was really a braver man than Mosely, and he answered
obstinately, "Give me half that gold-dust, or I'll take it."

Bill Mosely saw his determined face and felt that it was necessary to
back down. "I don't know why I don't shoot you," he said, trying to keep
up his air of domination.

"Because two can play at that game," said Hadley, doggedly.

He produced a pouch, and Bill Mosely, much against his will, was
compelled to divide the contents of the stolen bag, managing, however,
to retain the larger share himself.

"I don't want to quarrel with a friend," said Bill, more mildly, "but
you don't act friendly to-day."

"It's all right now," said Hadley, satisfied.

"Maybe you think I don't want to act fair," continued Mosely in an
injured tone. "Why, the very horse you are riding is a proof to the
contrary. I didn't ask for both horses, did I?"

"You couldn't ride both," answered Tom Hadley, with practical good
sense.

"I wonder where the fellows are we took them from?" said Mosely, with a
change of subject. "The man was a regular fire-eater: I wouldn't like to
meet him again."

"I should say so," chimed in Hadley, emphatically.

Bradley had paid Mosely in his own coin, and boasted of his prowess even
more extravagantly than that braggadocio, claiming to have killed from
seventy to eighty men in the course of his experience. Mosely had been
taken in by his confident tone, and knowi