Bar-20 Days

th and happiness as the town of Grant, twenty miles to his rear. If he could have been certain that no danger was nearer to him than these two towns, he would have felt vastly reliev

of which he knew well, somewhere between him and Grant was a posse of hard-riding cow-punchers, all anxious and eager for a glance at him over their sights. In his mind's eye he could see them, silent, grim, tenacious, reeling off the miles on that distance-eating lope. He had stolen a horse, and that meant death if they caught

the bumping saddle. As he rounded a turn and entered a heavily grassed valley he saw a stream close at hand and, leaping off, fixed the saddle first. As he knelt to drink he ca

t it eat. "I'll get my drink whil

and he swore fiercely as he remembered-he had sold the Colt for food and kept the rifle for defence. As he faced the rear a horseman rounded the turn and the fugitive, wheeling, dashed for the s

r. Cassidy, balancing the up-raised

nly replied the other, te

l baby! Got nerve enough to steal my cayuse, an' then go an' beller like a los

the other, clenching hi

of sufficient courage to call his captor a name never tolerated or overlooked in that country! And the idea that he, Hopalong Cassidy, of the Bar-20, could not shoot such a thief! "Damn that sky pilot! He's shore gone an' made me loco," he muttered, savagely,

ing you this noon in that gospel sharp's tent for making fun of that scarf, an' I'll do it yet if you ge

real genuine hoss-thief!" enthused Mr. Cassidy. "You act like a twin

eplied the thief. "I had to have it; that's why. I'll fight you rough-an'-tumble

enance. "Yore gall is refreshing! Damned if it ain't worse than the scarf. Here, you tell me what made you

gain coming into his eyes. "You'll think I'm lyin

opalong. "It was the other way about. Re

e me feel any better-which he could not. I just couldn't stand his palaver about death an' slipped out. I was going to lay for you an' lick you for the way you acted about this scarf-had to do something or go loco. But when I got outside there was yore cayuse, all saddled an' ready to go. I just up an' threw my saddle on it, followed suit with myself an' was ten miles out of town before I realized just what I'd done. But the realizing part of it didn't make no difference

e to cover the other and stop him not six feet away. "Just a m

fting his feet and preparing to spring. "We'd 'a'

had somebody here to mind these guns so you couldn't sneak 'em on me I'd fight you so blamed quick that you'd be licked

go loco if the strain lasts much longer! She asking for me, begging to see me: an' me, like a damned idiot, wasting time out here talking to another. Ride with me,

ed rope sailed out, tightened, and in a moment he was working at the saddle. "Here, you; I'm going to swamp mounts with you-this one is fresher an' faster." He had his own saddle off and the other on in record time, and stepped back. "There; don't stand ther

nded it quickly to his benefactor. "If you ever want a man to take y

faction. Not content with the damage he had inflicted, he leaned over and swooped it up. Riding further he also swooped up a stone and tied the kerchief around it, and then stood up in his stirrups and drew back his arm with critical judgment. He sat quietly for a time after the gaudy missile had disappeared into the stream and then, wheeling, cantered away. But he did not return to the town of Grant-he lacked the nerve to face Dave Wilkes and tell his childish and improbable sto

thinking: am I or