d
looked back slightingly with other annihilating remarks close behind his
wide-apart teeth, but instead of speaking he made an unbelievably quick
motion with his hand. The blow smacked loudly upon Dunk's cheek, and so
nearly sent him out of the saddle that he grabbed for the horn to save
himself.

"Oh, I seert yuh keepin' yer hand next yer six-gun all the while," Big
Medicine bawled. "That's one reason I say yuh ain't no man! Yuh wouldn't
dast talk up to a prairie dog if yuh wasn't all set to make a quick
draw. Yuh got your face slapped oncet before by a Flyin' U man, and yuh
had it comm'. Now you're--gittin'--it--done--right!"

If you have ever seen an irate, proletarian mother cuffing her offspring
over an empty wood-box, you may picture perhaps the present proceeding
of Big Medicine. To many a man the thing would have been unfeasible,
after the first blow, because of the horses. But Big Medicine was very
nearly all that he claimed to be; and one of his pet vanities was his
horsemanship; he managed to keep within a fine slapping distance of
Dunk. He stopped when his hand began to sting through his glove.

"Now you keep your hand away from that gun--that you ain't honest enough
to carry where folks can see it, but 'ye got it cached in your pocket!"
he thundered. "And go on with what you was goin' t'say. Only don't get
swell-headed enough to think you're a man, agin. You ain't."

"I've got this to say!" Mere type cannot reproduce the malevolence of
Dunk's spluttering speech. "I've sent for the county sheriff and a dozen
deputies to arrest you, and you, and you, damn you!" He was pointing
a shaking finger at the older members of the Happy Family, whom he
recognized not gladly, but too well. "I'll have you all in Deer Lodge
before that lying, thieving, cattle-stealing Old Man of yours can lift a
finger. I'll sheep Flying U coulee to the very doors of the white house.
I'll skin the range between here and the river--and I'll have every one
of you hounds put where the dogs won't bite you!" He drew a hand across
his mouth and smiled as they say Satan himself can smile upon occasion.

"You've done enough to send you all over the road; destroying property
and assaulting harmless men--you wait! There are other and better
ways to fight than with the fists, and I haven't forgotten any of you
fellows--there are a few more rounders among you--"

"Hey! You apologize fer that, by cripes, er I'll kill yuh the longest
way I know.