other hand, they
were all against him, and hugely enjoying his discomfiture. With some
men he could afford to take chances and jerk at his gun even when at
such a disadvantage, but--

"Stranger," he said slowly, "what's yore name?"

The crowd listened eagerly.

"My _friends_ call me Hopalong Cassidy; other people, other things--you
gimme that cayuse an' that Winchester. Here! Hand the gun to Fisher, so
there won't be no lamentable accidents: I don't want to shoot you, 'less
I have to."

"They're both yourn," sighed Mr. Townsend, remembering a certain
day over near Alameda, when he had seen Mr. Cassidy at gun-play. He
dismounted slowly and sorrowfully. "Do I--do I get my two bits?" he
asked.

"You shore do--yore gall is worth it," said Mr. Cassidy, turning the
piebald over to its overjoyed owner, who was already arranging further
gambling with his friend, the bartender.

Mr. Townsend pocketed the one bid, surveyed glumly the hilarious crowd
flocking in to the bar to drink to their joy in his defeat, and wandered
disconsolately back to the pound. He was never again seen in that
locality, or by any of the citizens of Rawhide, for between dark and
dawn he resumed his travels, bound for some locality far removed from
limping, red-headed drawbacks.

CHAPTER XV

JOHNNY LEARNS SOMETHING

For several weeks after Hopalong got back to the ranch, full of
interesting stories and minus the grouch, things went on in a way placid
enough for the most peacefully inclined individual that ever sat a
saddle. And then trouble drifted down from the north and caused a look
of anxiety to spoil Buck Peters' pleasant expression, and began to show
on the faces of his men. When one finds the carcasses of two cows on the
same day, and both are skinned, there can be only one conclusion. The
killing and skinning of two cows out of herds that are numbered by
thousands need not, in themselves, bring lines of worry to any foreman's
brow; but there is the sting of being cheated, the possibility of the
losses going higher unless a sharp lesson be given upon the folly
of fooling with a very keen and active buzz-saw,--and it was the
determination of the outfit of the Bar-20 to teach that lesson, and as
quickly as circumstances would permit.

It was common knowledge that there was a more or less organized band of
shiftless malcontents making its headquarters in and near Perry's Bend,
some distance up the river, and the deduction in this case