rst chance, only
you're afraid uh him. He never gits full but he reads out your
pedigree to the crowd. So I just thought I'd tell you, and let yuh be
on your guard."

"Thanks," said Weary, getting out papers and tobacco. "And whereabouts
will I find this lovely specimen uh manhood?"

"They're stopping over to Bill Mason's; but yuh better not go hunting
trouble, Irish. That's the worst about putting yuh next to the lay.
You sure do love a fight. But I thought I'd let yuh know, as a friend,
so he wouldn't take you unawares. Don't be a fool and go out looking
for him, though; he ain't worth the trouble."

"I won't," Weary promised generously. "I haven't lost nobody that
looks like Spikes-er-" he searched his memory frantically for the other
name, failed to get it, and busied himself with his cigarette, looking
mean and bloodthirsty to make up. "Still," he added darkly, "if I
should happen to meet up with him, yuh couldn't blame me--"

"Oh, sure not!" the bartender hastened to cut in. "It'd be a case uh
self-defence--the way he's been makin' threats. But--"

"Maybe," hazarded Weary mildly, "you'd kinda like to see--_her_--a
widow?"

"From all accounts," the other retorted, flushing a bit nevertheless,
"If yuh make her a widow, yuh won't leave her that way long. I've
heard it said you was pretty far gone, there."

Weary considered, the while he struck another match and relighted his
cigarette. He had not expected to lay bare any romance in the somewhat
tumultuous past of Irish. Irish had not seemed the sort of fellow who
had an unhappy love affair to dream of nights; he had seemed a
particularly whole-hearted young man.

"Well, yuh see," he said vaguely, "Maybe I've got over it."

The bartender regarded him fixedly and unbelievingly. "You'll have
quite a contract making Spikes swallow that," he remarked drily.

"Oh, damn Spikes," murmured Weary, with the fine recklessness of Irish
in his tone.

At that moment a cowboy jangled in, caught sight of Weary's back and
fell upon him joyously, hailing him as Irish. Weary was very glad to
see him, and listened assiduously for something that would give him a
clue to the fellow's identity. In the meantime he called him "Say,
Old-timer," and "Cully." It had come to be a self-instituted point of
honor to play the game through without blundering. He waved his hand
hospitably toward the ribbed bottle, and told the stranger to "Throw
into yuh, Old-timer--it's