Bar-20 Days

forts at levity made little impression on the irate pair. Red, true to his word, had turned up at the time set, in fact, he was half an hour ahead of ti

nsequences; and they squabbled so refreshingly, and spent their money cheerfully. Now, if they would only wind up the day by fighting! Such a finish would be j

e pleasing fulness. Then the squabbling began again, growing worse until they fell silen

," suggested Red. "An' he might be a week," he added thoughtful

ll tale to explain it," growled Hopalong, reminiscen

xcuses?" asked Dent

oman; take him all in all an' you've got the toughest propos

nt to say anything about the Kid-if there's anybody that can beat him in bein

ing coming towards the house. The door opened with a bang, admitting a white-faced

over to the bar with a cheerful disregard for chairs and o

he had put into his effort. Johnny side-stepped and ducked, and as he straightened up to ask for whys a

Hopalong, who

y, and when he had it he leaned against the b

h you, anyhow?" asked

what's happened to y

weight. "Fellers, I had a cougar soft-footing after me in that dark canyo

d repeated his frank and candid statement, adding a few adjectives to it. "A real, screeching, flying ghost! An' I'm going

y don't you say something? Didn't you hear what I said, you fools!" he asked pugnaciously. "Are you in the habit o

Red, and then they both looked at Dent, w

rd their erring friend. "Didn't you see no more'n one ghost? Anybody that can see one ghost, an' no more, is wrong somewhere. Now,

en flurry and Johnny's words

there ain't no telling what he'll do if he's loose. The mescal they sells down in

e amount of territory they covered and defended, and Red joyfully kicked Hopalong in the melee, which in this instance also stands for stomach; Red always took great pains to do more than his share in a scrimmage. Dent hovered on the flanks, his hands full of rope, and begged with great earnestness to be allowed to apply it to parts of Johnny's thras

shrunk silently and folded itself on top of Dent, who bucked it up and down with burning zeal and finally had sense enough to crawl from under it. He immediately celebrated his liberation by getting a strangle hold on two legs, one of which happened to be the personal property of Hopalong Cassidy; and the battle raged on

seeing how close his fingers could come to his gaudy eye without touc

aw shin. "It's the mescal. I'm going to slip some of that stuff into Pete's cayuse som

he finished as an afterthought, limping off toward the bar, slowly and

g the ashes out of his pipe, Hopalong arose. "An' yet, Dent, there are peo

Greasers all say there is a ghost in the San Miguel, though I never saw it

ave filled the Kid up on ghosts while he was f

hat ghost, but they were all Mexicans; now that a "white" man of Johnny's undisputed calibre had been so honored Dent's skepticism wavered

as being beneath further comment. "Well, we won't arg

was just spoiling for a fight, an' now I've had it. Feels sort of good. Yes,

austed. After cautious and critical inspection, which was made hard because of his damaged eye, he tiptoed back to his bunk, s

se and reported. It took them two nights adequately to describe their experiences to an envious audience. T

NO GHOS

his work, and the running fire of comment covered all degrees of humor, and promised much

Sandy Lucas in two beautiful and memorable fights and was only waiting to recover from the last affair before having the matter out with Rich Finn. These facts were beginning to have the effect he strove for; though Cowan still sold a new conco

stions he was convinced that Johnny had really seen something. On the way home he cogitated upon it and two points challenged his intelligence with renewed insistence: the ghost showed itself only on Friday, and then only to "Gr

as angry, for he had warned the outfit that they were carrying the joke too far, that Johnny was giving way to hysterical rage more frequently, and might easily do something that they all would regret. And he felt sorry for the Kid; he knew what Johnny's feelings were and he made up his mind to start a few fights himself if the pe

aiting for him a short distance from the corral and he replied to hi

opalong stopped, turned, and looked his companion squarely in the eyes. "Kid, I'm in dead earnest. This ain't no fool joke-now you tell me what that ghost looked like,

flushing. "I've begged you to believe me an' told you that I wa

nute-I've done a heap of thinking in the past few days an' I know that you saw a ghost. Now, everybody knows that there ain't no such thing as ghosts; then what w

d when he spoke like that, with such sharp decision, Johnny knew what it meant. Hopalong

thing crooked going on in that canyon, an' I

would more than pay up for the fun they had enjoyed at his expense; and the longer the suspense lasted the worse it became. They never lost sight of him while he was around and Hopalong had to endure the same surveillance; and it was no uncommon t

eters drew rein and waited

" asked the newcomer, sizing

you, an' what

ters, Buck Peters

what o

; that's the situation. We've got to have shrewd men that they don't know an' won't suspect. Lane wants to pay a

. I've got a couple of men that-there's on

rried his point, and galloped off to find the lucky two, his eyes gleaming with anticipation and joy. Fox laughed, thanked the foreman, and rode on his way north; and that nigh