ssistance.
Without hesitation he flung the overcoat on a packing case, and
rushing up to Matt's assailant, caught him by the collar and dragged
him from behind the counter.

"Let me--me go!" spluttered the tipsy individual. "Let go my collar!"

"Don't you do it, Andy!" and Matt sprang to his feet as quickly as he
could.

"I don't intend to," was Andy's determined answer. "What's the meaning
of this trouble?"

"He wouldn't let me look at the pistols," whined the tipsy man,
collapsing now that he saw he was powerless to do any more injury.

"I didn't think he was in fit condition to look at anything," put in
Matt.

"You had no right to abuse my partner," said Andy, sure that Matt was
in the right of the altercation. "Now you get right out of here, and
don't show your face again."

And Andy shoved the man toward the door, which he had left partly
open.

The tipsy man began to remonstrate, and wanted to fight both of them.
He grew quite abusive, and threatened to wreck all the things in the
establishment. Before he could carry out his threat, however, Andy and
Matt landed him out on his back on the sidewalk and beckoned to a
passing policeman.

"What! so it's you again!" cried the officer, on seeing the
intoxicated individual. "I thought you had warning enough at the
hotel. What has he been doing?" he asked of Matt.

"He got mad because I wouldn't let him handle the pistols in the
place."

"The pistols?"

"Yes, sir. He insisted upon seeing the best pistol we had, and I
wouldn't accommodate him. I thought it might be dangerous. Of course
he would want cartridges, and then he might go off and shoot
somebody."

"That was his intention. He got into a row in the hotel on the next
block, and the clerk says he threatened to shoot the proprietor. I
suppose he was bent on getting the pistol to do it with. Just you come
with me, and I'll give you a chance to sober up."

The tipsy man remonstrated, and tried to make the policeman believe
that the rows at the hotel and at the store were only jokes. But the
officer would not listen, and took the drunken individual to the
station-house, where, later on, he was sentenced to thirty days in the
county jail for disturbing the peace.

"That's another side of the auction business," said Matt, after he and
Andy were left alone. "And I must confess it's a side I don't like. It
was lucky you came along when you did."

"An intoxicated man never makes a good customer, Matt.