ready, maybe we'd better start
interviewin' the scenery on the trail. How about chuck?"

"Thanks," said the boy, "I had dinner on the car."

"An' you're thirsty none?"

"Not especially. But," he added, not wishing to offend his companion,
"if you are, go ahead."

"Well, if you don't mind," began the other, then he checked himself. "I
guess I c'n keep from dyin' of a cracked throat until we get there," he
added. "C'n you ride?"

"Yes!" said Wilbur decisively.

The cowboy turned half round to look at him with a dubious smile.

"You surely answers that a heap sudden," he said. "An' I opine that's
some risky as a general play."

"Why?" asked the boy.

"Bein' too sure in three-card Monte has been a most disappointin'
experience to many a gent, an' has been most condoocive to transfers of
ready cash."

"But that's just guessing," said Wilbur. "I'm talking of what I know."

"Like enough you never heard about Quick-Finger Joe?" queried the
cowboy. "Over-confidence hastens his exit quite some."

"No," answered Wilbur quickly, scenting a story, "I never even heard of
him. Who was he?"

"This same Joe," began the range-rider, "is a tow-haired specimen whose
manly form decorates the streets of this here metropolis of Sumber that
you've been admirin'. He has the name of bein' the most agile
proposition on a trigger that ever shot the spots off a ten o' clubs. He
makes good his reputation a couple of times, and then gets severely left
alone. To him, one day, while he is standin' takin' a little
refreshment, comes up a peaceful and inoffensive-lookin' stranger, who
has drifted into town promiscuous-like in the course of the afternoon.
He addresses Joe some like this:

"'Which I hears with profound admiration that you're some frolicsome
and speedy on gun-play?'

"Joe, tryin' to hide his blushes, admits that his hand can amble for his
hip right smart. Whereupon the amiable-appearin' gent makes some sort of
comment, just what no one ever knew, but it seems tolerable superfluous
an' sarcastic, an' instantaneous there's two shots. When the smoke
clears away a little, Joe is observed to be occupyin' a horizontal
position on the floor and showin' a pronounced indisposition to move.
The stranger casually remarks:

"'Gents, this round's on me. I shore hates to disturb your peaceful
converse on a balmy evenin' like this yere in a manner so abrupt an'
sudden-like. But he had to get his, some time, an' somebody's
meditation