RUNNION FINDS THE SINGING PEOPLE


"No Creek" Lee came into the trading-post on the following morning,
and found Gale attending store as if nothing unusual had occurred.

"Say! What's this about you and Stark? I hear you had a horrible
run-in, and that you split him up the back like a quail."

"We had a row," admitted the trader. "It's been a long time working
out, and last night it came to a head."

"Lord-ee! And to think of Ben Stark's bein' licked! Why, the whole
camp's talkin' about it! They say he emptied two six-shooters at
you, but you kept a-comin', and when you did get to him you just
carved your initials on him like he was a bass-wood tree. Say, John,
he's a goner, sure."

"Do you mean he's--passing out?"

"Oh no! I reckon he'll get well, from what I hear, though he won't
let nobody come near him except old Doc; but he's lost a battle, and
that ends him. Don't you savvy? Whenever a killer quits second best,
it breaks his hoodoo. Why, there's been men laying for him these
twenty years, from here to the Rio Grande, and every feller he ever
bested will hear of this and begin to grease his holster; then the
first shave-tail desperado that meets him will spit in his eye, just
to make a name for himself. No, sir! He's a spent shell. He's got to
fight all his battles over again, and this time the other feller
will open the ball. Oh, I've seen it happen before. You killed him