Sudden Makes War

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"I'm lookin' for a man."

The words--of sinister import in the West--arrested the attention of everyone within hearing, and had the desired effect of collecting a crowd of the curious. Yet the speaker had not the appearance of one engaged upon an errand of vengeance. A youthful cowboy--he was no more than twenty --in town for a spree, seemed to explain him. So thought at least one of the onlookers.

"Young Dan Dover o' the Circle Dot ranch over to Rainbow," he told an enquirer. "Now what in 'ell is he after? They ain't got no money to throw about."

" 'Pears like they have," was the reply.

For the object of their interest, standing on the raised platform before the Paradise Saloon, his Stetson pushed jauntily back to disclose curly hair of a particularly aggressive shade of red, had produced two gold pieces--double eagles--and a Mexican silver dollar. With these he began to perform the elementary conjuring trick of passing the coins from hand to hand, keeping one in the air. It was not much of a show, and in an Eastern town would have attracted little notice, but in this far-flung outpost of civilization, it held his audience and brought others.

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