lenty of room.

The rider was now able to distinguish the faces of the men in the
group, and he gazed with interested eyes at the man who had first
issued from the door of the saloon.

The man was tall--nearly as tall as the rider--and in his every
movement seemed sure of himself. He was young, seemingly about
thirty-five, with shifty, insolent eyes and a hard mouth whose lips
were just now curved into a self-conscious smile.

The rider had now approached to within fifty feet of the man, halting
his pony at the extreme end of the hitching rail that skirted the front
of the saloon. He sat carelessly in the saddle, his gaze fixed on the
man.

The men who had followed the first man out, to the number of a dozen,
were apparently deeply interested, though plainly skeptical. A short,
fat man, who was standing near the saloon door, looked on with a
half-sneer. Several others were smiling blandly. A tall man on the
extreme edge of the crowd, near the rider, was watching the man in the
street gravely. Other men had allowed various expressions to creep
into their faces. But all were silent.

Not so the man in the street. Plainly, here was conceit personified,
and yet a conceit mingled with a maddening insolence. His expression
told all that this thing which he was about to do was worthy of the
closest attention. He was the axis upon which the interest of the
universe revolved.

Certainly he knew of the attention he was attracting. Men were
approaching from the other end of the street, joining the group in
front of the saloon--which the rider now noticed was called the "Silver
Dollar." The newcomers were inquisitive; they spoke in low tones to
the men who had arrived before them, gravely inquiring the cause.

But the man in the street seemed not disturbed by his rapidly swelling
audience. He stood in the place he had selected, his insolent eyes
roving over the assembled company, his thin, expressive lips opening a
very little to allow words to filter through them.

"Gents," he said, "you're goin' to see some shootin'! I told you in
the Silver Dollar that I could keep a can in the air while I put five
holes in it. There's some of you gassed about bein' showed, not
believin'. An' now I'm goin' to show you!"

He reached down and took up a can that had lain at his feet, removing
the red lithographed label, which had a picture of a large tomato in
the center of it. The can was revealed, naked and shining in