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was hot, "mighty hot," in Painted Rock, that city of the north-west Texas plateau, and folks said it was going to be warmer yet. There had been a tornado which struck one end of the "City" and destroyed a dozen houses; the tornado had been followed the week after by a sand-storm which made everything gritty but an egg, and the sand-storm had been succeeded by a thunder-storm which killed a good many steers the other side of the Wolf Creek. As a result of this weather the summer may be said to have commenced, and the heat led to a "difficulty" on Main Street which ended in the death of an unconsidered stranger at the hands of a prominent citizen and hardware merchant. These things will happen in hot weather in