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 of the groom down again with his long body half under the table. Smith drove at the coffee-pot and kicked it high out of Mrs. Goodloe's hand. It fell near the minister, who at once made a jump for the door.

Smith was standing in the steaming confusion, his big gun in his hand, as the minister reached Texas.

"For Heaven's sake, do something—do something!" he appealed.

"Sir, if you wish it," Texas replied.

Texas walked gravely into the room. But under his dignified coat, under the solemn mask of his face, he was not one-tenth as serious as he seemed.

Inwardly, he regretted having to spoil the fun, for it was the best show he had seen in many a day, and he would have liked, above everything, to see how far Smith would go. He laid his hand on Smith's shoulder as he stood there swinging his gun, as if limbering his arm for destruction.

"Sir, you're the man that went off to the Nation one time to look around, I reckon, ain't you?"

Smith glared at him, fixing his mouth in the expression of a man who was in the habit of eating them raw, bending his brows in a most ferocious frown.

"What if I was? Who in the hell're you?"

Texas did not approve of that kind of language