self sparingly and raised his glass.

"Here's how."

"How," responded the Texan, and returning the empty glass to the bar
produced papers and tobacco and rolled a cigarette. Then very
deliberately, he produced a roll of bills, peeled a yellow one from the
outside, and returned the roll to his pocket. Without so much as the
flicker of an eyelash, the bartender noted that the next one also was
yellow. The cowpuncher laid the bill on the bar, and with a jerk of the
thumb, indicated the four engrossed in a game of solo at a table in the
rear of the room.

"Don't yer friends imbibe nothin'?" he asked, casually.

The bartender grinned as he glanced toward the table. "Might try 'em,
now. I didn't see no call to bust into a solo-tout with no trivial
politics like a couple of drinks.

"Gents, what's yourn?"

From across the room came a scraping of chairs, and the four men lined
up beside the Texan and measured their drinks.

"Stranger in these parts?" inquired a tall man with a huge sunburned
moustache.

"Sort of," replied the Texan, "but let's licker before this sinful
decoction evaporates."

"Seems like I've saw you before, somewheres," opined a thick man with
round china blue eyes.

"Maybe you have, because astoundin' as it may seem, this ain't my first
appearance in public--but you might be nature fakin', at that. Where was
it this here episode took place?"

The man shook his head: "I dunno, only it seems like you look sort of
nat'chel, somehow."

"I always did--it's got so's it's almost what you might call a fixed
habit--like swallowin' when I drink. But, speakin' of towns, Timber
City's sure had a boom since I was here last. You've got a new horse
trough in front of the livery barn." The tall man ordered another round
of drinks, and the Texan paused to fill his glass. They drank, and with
an audible suck at his overhanging moustache, the tall man leaned an
elbow on the bar: "It ain't noways safe or advisable," he said slowly,
looking straight at the Texan, "fer no lone cow-hand to ride in here an'
make light of Timber City to our face."

A man with a green vest and white, sleek hands insinuated himself
between the two and smiled affably: "Come on, now, boys, they ain't
nawthin' in quarrelin'. The gent, here, was only kiddin' us a little an'
we ain't got no call to raise the hair on our back for that. What do you
say we start a little game of stud? Solo ain't no summer game,
nohow--too much thinkin'. How a