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 the elegance of taste of which Noggle was the great exemplar—and wiped away the sweat of his agonizing fear.

"That feller'll go too fur one of these days!" he said.

"I think he's gone too far already," Texas allowed. "You could whip that man with one hand if you'd sail into him—why, I tell you he'd run so fast you never would be able to overtake him between here and the Nation."

Noggle looked back, and around him, to make certain that Smith had not followed nor cut across and headed them off.

"I'll do it, too! If I could ever git him in the shop for a shave I'd cut his throat clean down to his backbone!"

"I don't think he'll put his head in a trap thataway. You buy yourself a gun, and you wear it when you step out; then you march up to that man and slap his jaw and spraddle all over him like old folks. He'll beat time hittin' a streak out of this town, and I'll bet you a purty he will."

Noggle didn't warm up to the suggestion. Texas could see through him all around the edges; he hadn't any more heat in him than a hickory shad. He felt sorry for Malvina, for he knew that if there was any fighting to be done in that family she would have to do it, and he believed she would do