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4 When Al had pocketed the tobacco, which was tied up in a long, tight bag like a sausage, he slouched into a comfortable position and poked the gray cat again; this offended her dignity evidently, for she slid silently from the counter and dodged behind a flour barrel.

"The Eagle kinder complimented you on the way you took Bord McGovern last Wednesday," said Al, giving a glance out across the square at the only brick building in town (which happened to be the jail), "an' Sheriff Holly says you done a good piece of work too," he added.

"Oh, pshaw!" said the clerk, "It wasn't much. Bord didn't have anything against me. He came along as peaceably as a lamb."

"More like a bull with a ring in his nose, I reckon," said the other. "He'd swan he'd drill a hole through any one that tried to take him."

"Changed his mind, I guess," was the calm rejoinder. "How are things out your way?"

Al pushed himself to his feet and began buttoning his long, yellow coat.

"Oh, looking up a little," he answered; "going to dig a new well this spring."