says the little man, sort of
gaspy, "to imagine such a horrible monstrosity!"

"Very likely for you, sir," says Charley, speaking affable, "it
is. But you must remember that ours is a young and a vigorous
community--too young, too vigorous, to be cramped and trammelled by
obsolete conventions and narrow Old-World rules. Life with us, you
see, has an uncertain suddenness--owing to our energetic habit of
settling our little differences promptly, and in a decisive way.
At the last meeting of our Sunshine Club, for instance--as the
result of a short but heated argument--Brother Michael, here, felt
called upon to shoot a fellow-member. While recognizing that the
occurrence was unavoidable, we regretted it keenly--Brother Michael
most of all."

"Sure I did that," said Blister, playing out quick to the lead Charley
give him. "But your Reverence remembers he drew on me first--and if
he'd been sober enough to shoot straight it's meself, and not him,
would be by now living out in the cemetery on the mesa; and another'd
be serving your drinks to you across this bar. I had the rights on my
side."

"Precisely," says Charley. "You see, sir, it was a perfectly fair
fight. Brother Michael and his fellow-member exchanged their shots in
an honorable manner--and, while we mourn the sudden decease of our
friend lost to us, our friend who survives has suffered no diminution
of our affectionate regard. Had the shooting been unfair, then the
case would have gone into another category--and our community promptly
would have manifested the sturdy sense of justice that is inherent in
it by hanging the man by whom the unfair shot had been fired. Believe
me, sir"--and Santa Fe stood up straight and stuck his chest
out--"Palomitas has its own high standards of morality: and it never
fails to maintain those standards in its own stern way!"

The little man didn't say nothing back. He looked like he was sort of
mazed. All he did was to ask for another brandy-and-soda; and when
he'd took it he allowed he'd skip having his bath and get at his
eating right away--saying he was feeling faintish, and maybe what he
needed was food. Of course that was no time of day to get victuals:
but Santa Fe was a good one at managing, and he fixed it up so he had
some sort of a hash layout; and before he went at it he give him a
wash-up in his own room.

It was while he was hashing, Charley said, the notion come to him how
Palomitas might have some real sport with