ore the grimy little
shack which did combined duty as stationery store and post office, he
nodded casually to the crowd of loafers about the entrance; if he
noticed significant glances toward the horses tied to the railing across
the street, he made no sign. And when the old postmaster quietly
volunteered the information, "Matlock is in town," he merely smiled his
comprehension and rolled a fresh cigarette. Matlock was the man whom he
had so ignominiously dragged at his rope's end a month ago. And Matlock
had been indiscreet of speech since.

At the door he turned and came back with his hand extended to his
friend, "I am sure grateful to you for your interest, Hank," he said
gravely. "I noticed his horse as I came in. Well, so-long!" and
thrusting into his pocket the bundle of mail at which he had scarcely
glanced, went out, mounted his horse and rode unconcernedly toward the
one hotel which the embryo metropolis boasted.

Hank Williams scratched his head thoughtfully as he turned again to the
task of assorting the afternoon's mail. "Of course he must play his own
hand," he ruminated, "an' he'll come mighty nigh to winnin' out. But all
the same I'd like to set in the game a deal or two myself. Guess I'll
look in at the Alcazar to-night."

"I ain't got no call to butt in," he continued as he puzzled over an
unusually illegible address, "but that Matlock is a treacherous coyote
an' there's no tellin' what lowdown play he'll make. I just nacherally
have to keep cases to-night." His work finished, the old man proceeded
to carefully fill the empty loops of his cartridge belt and there was a
grim determination on his handsome hard old face as he spun the cylinder
of his ".45" to test its perfect action.

Up at the hotel an ambuscade was laid into which Douglass walked
unwittingly. As his foot reached the first of the three low steps
leading up to the rickety veranda, an arm shot around the corner of the
house, there was a soft swis-h-h, a chuckle of tense triumph, and the
folds of a lasso encircled his throat. Involuntarily his hand leaped to
his holster on his hip and the ready gun came flashing half way up. But
after a lightning glance at the chubby fist holding the other end of the
reata, the twinkle in his eyes accorded but illy with his subsequent
plunging and yelling as he sprawled on all fours and bawled like a
choking calf.

Then from around the corner rushed a sturdy little boy of five,
gathering up the slack o