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 steers and plenty of money. And straight shooting, combined with money, will go a considerable way in the Panhandle of Texas even now.

"And what's come of poor Sage?" asked the Colonel. Not a soul knew till weeks afterwards, when a man came in from El Paso.

"After he crawled out of Red River, he drank and gambled all he had," said El Paso Smith, "and then he rode the drawheads of a train from Big Springs to our town. And now he's washing dishes at a low-down hash-house kept by a Mexican!"

"Is he tough any more?" asked the listeners.

"Tough!" sneered El Paso Smith. "Why, a Dutchman could slap his face any day and he'd take water then and there."