Page 9 - lw3216

"TRAVELIN' ON" 7
I
at a mark with a pop gun, but it takes guts to draw
a gun on a man. If you had to do that, your hand
would be about as steady as the end of a fish pole
that had a pickerel hooked onto it."

There is an ominous silence, for with all. the bluffing
ways of Gila, he is a gun man and a killer, not a fair
fighter but a killer. The crowd await expectantly
for the next move, knowing that some action must
.now take place. The stranger, still unmoved, looks
Gila over closely, paying no attention to the fact that
Gila's hand is resting easily on his cartidge belt three
inches from his gun. Then the stranger speaks again
quietly and finally, "Gila, either your head is too little
or your hat is too big. I ain't aimin' to say which it
is." And he cooly reaches up and takes Gila's hat
by the rim and pulls it down over his eyes. There is
a snarl from the blinded Gila as he reaches quickly
for his gun, but the fist of the stranger crashes out
and lands full on the point of Gila's jaw, and he goes
down and out for the time being, and forever disgraced
in the eyes of Tumble Bluff. The stranger had even
disdained to use a gun on him, and cooly walked away
and entered the Palace of Chance of Dandy Allen
McGee.

Wheri J. B. enters the Palace, he is the object of
all eyes but is apparently unmindful of it all. He goes
to the bar and orders his drink. Now, Gila is half
dunk, and Gila had been struck down and disgraced
and in his semi-dazed condition, both from drink
and the blow on the point of his jaw, he seeks to do
that which he ordinarily would not have done in any
Western community: he seeks to do murder. · With