is horse and rode out the narrow
gate he found his wife waiting with a lunch.

"Don't crush the doughnuts," she murmured anxiously and patted his hand
approvingly.

"All right," he said and, putting spurs to his horse, he galloped off
over the hill.

The old town of Pinal lay on a bench above the creek bed, with high
cliffs to the east and north; but south and west the country fell off
rapidly in a series of rolling ridges. Over these the road to the
railroad climbed and dipped with wearisome regularity until at last it
dropped down into the creek-bed again and followed its dry, sandy
course. Not half an hour had passed from the time the second hobo left
till Old Bunk had started after him, yet so fast had he traveled that he
was almost to the creek bed before Bunker Hill caught sight of him.

"Ay, Chihuahua!" he ejaculated in shrill surprise and reined in his
horse to gaze. The young hobo was running and, not far ahead, the Ground
Hog was fleeing before him. They ran through bushy gulches and over
cactus-crowned ridges where the sahuaros rose up like giant sentinels;
until at last, as he came to the sandy creek-bed, the black hobo stood
at bay.

"They're fighting!" exclaimed Bunker with a joyous chuckle and rode down
the trail like the wind.

After twenty wild years in Old Mexico, there were times when Bunker Hill
found Arizona a trifle tame; but here at last there was staged a combat
that promised to take a place in local history. When he rode up on the
fight the young miner and the Ground Hog were standing belt to belt,
exchanging blows with all their strength, and as the young man reeled
back from a right to the jaw the Ground Hog leapt in to finish him.

"Here! None of that!" spoke up Bunker Hill menacing the black hobo with
his quirt; but the battered young Apollo waved him angrily aside and
flew at his opponent again.

"I'll show you, you danged dog!" he cursed exultantly as the Ground Hog
went down before him, "I'll show you how to run out on me! Come on, you
big stiff, and if I don't make you holler quit you can have every dollar
you stole!"

"Hey, what's the matter, Big Boy? What's going on here?" demanded Bunker
of the blond young giant. "I thought you fellers were pardners."

"Pardners, hell!" spat Big Boy, whose mouth was beginning to bleed. "He
robbed me of all my money. We won eight hundred dollars in the drilling
contest at Globe and he collected the stakes and beat it!"

"You're a liar!" r