the
unconventional. The West was all this, therefore romance dwelt here.

"Of course it all seems commonplace to you," she returned; "perhaps
even monotonous. For you have lived here long."

He laughed. "I've traveled a heap," he said. "I've been in
California, Dakota, Wyoming, Texas, an' Arizona. An' now I'm here.
Savin' a man meets different people, this country is pretty much all
the same."

"You must have had a great deal of experience," she said. "And you are
not very old."

He gravely considered her. "I would say that I am about the average
age for this country. You see, folks don't live to get very old out
here--unless they're mighty careful."

"And you haven't been careful?"

He smiled gravely. "I expect you wouldn't call it careful. But I'm
still livin'."

His words were singularly free from boast.

"That means that you have escaped the dangers," she said. "I have
heard that a man's safety in this country depends largely upon his
ability to shoot quickly and accurately. I suppose you are accounted a
good shot?"

The question was too direct. His eyes narrowed craftily.

"I expect you're thinkin' of that book now ma'am," he said. "There's a
heap of men c'n shoot. You might say they're all good shots. I've
told you about the men who can't shoot good. They're either mighty
careful, or they ain't here any more. It's always one or the other."

"Oh, dear!" she exclaimed, shuddering slightly. "In that case I
suppose the hero in my story will have to be a good shot." She
laughed. "I shouldn't want him to get half way through the story and
then be killed because he was clumsy in handling his weapon. I am
beginning to believe that I shall have to make him a 'two-gun' man. I
understand they are supposed to be very good shots."

"I've seen them that wasn't," he returned gravely and shortly.

"How did you prove that?" she asked suddenly.

But he was not to be snared. "I didn't say I'd proved it," he stated.
"But I've seen it proved."

"How proved?"

"Why," he said, his eyes glinting with amusement, "they ain't here any
more, ma'am."

"Oh. Then it doesn't follow that because a man wears two guns he is
more likely to survive than is the man who wears only one?"

"I reckon not, ma'am."

"I see that you have the bottoms of your holsters tied down," she said,
looking at them. "Why have you done that?"

"Well," he declared, drawling his words a little, "I've always found
that