ner and
seated himself on a bench by the window from which he now looked out
upon the storm with a brooding preoccupation as sincere as it was
maddening. His large deer eyes were fixed upon the distance, and his
manner was that of a man who studies deeply upon some abstruse
problem; of a man with a past, perhaps, such as often came to those
parts, crossed in love, or hiding out from his folks.

Black Tex dismissed the drummer with an impatient gesture and was
pondering solemnly upon his grievances when a big, square-jowled cat
rushed out from behind the bar and set up a hoarse, raucous mewing.

"Ah, shet up!" growled Brady, throwing him away with his foot; but as
the cat's demands became more and more insistent the barkeeper was at
last constrained to take some notice.

"What's bitin' you?" he demanded, peering into the semi-darkness
behind the bar; and as the cat, thus encouraged, plunged recklessly in
among a lot of empty bottles, he promptly threw him out and fished up
a mouse trap, from the cage of which a slender tail was wriggling
frantically.

"Aha!" he exclaimed, advancing triumphantly into the middle of the
floor. "Look, boys, here's where we have some fun with Tom!" And as
the card players turned down their hands to watch the sport, the old
cat, scenting his prey, rose up on his hind legs and clutched at the
cage, yelling.

Grabbing him roughly by the scruff of the neck Black Tex suddenly
threw him away and opened the trap, but the frightened mouse, unaware
of his opportunity, remained huddled up in the corner.

"Come out of that," grunted the barkeeper, shaking the cage while with
his free hand he grappled the cat, and before he could let go his hold
the mouse was halfway across the room, heading for the bench where
Hardy sat.

"Ketch 'im!" roared Brady, hurling the eager cat after it, and just as
the mouse was darting down a hole Tom pinned it to the floor with his
claws.

"What'd I tell ye?" cried the barkeeper, swaggering. "That cat will
ketch 'em every time. Look at that now, will you?"

With dainty paws arched playfully, the cat pitched the mouse into the
air and sprang upon it like lightning as it darted away. Then mumbling
it with a nicely calculated bite, he bore it to the middle of the
floor and laid it down, uninjured.

"Ain't he hell, though?" inquired Tex, rolling his eyes upon the
spectators. The cat reached out cautiously and stirred it up with his
paw; and once more, as his victim