“You’re the cur I want!” Bill muttered brokenly to Tex, straightening up and becoming rapidly steadier under the stimulus of his rage. “You’re the –– I want, d––n you!” he repeated as he slowly advanced. “It’s my turn now, you cur! Lynch me, would you? Lynch me, eh? Tried to hit me when I was tied, eh? Sicked your dogs on me, eh? Keep still, d––n you–you can’t get away!” he cried as Tex moved backward.
“Stand to it like a man, or I’ll blow your head off!” cried The Orphan from his perch. “Go on, Bill!”
“You said you wanted me, didn’t you? Do you still want me?” he asked, not hearing The Orphan’s words. “Are you still curious?” he asked, backing Tex into a corner.
“Hash him up, Bill!” cried the man above, and then, “Hey, wait a minute–I want to see this,” he added as he slid down the bank. “Go ahead with the slaughter–push his head off!”
Bill’s one hundred and eighty pounds of muscle and rage suddenly hurled itself forward behind a huge fist and Tex hit the bank and careened into the dust of the trail, unconscious before he had moved.
“I told you you wasn’t man enough to play a lone hand!” yelled the driver as he leaped after his victim. But he was stopped by the sheriff, who sprang forward and deflected him from his course.
“That’s enough–no killing!” Shields cried, regaining his balance and swiftly interposing himself between the driver and Tex.
Bill didn’t hear him, for he had just caught sight of the man who had told him to warble, and he lost no time in getting to him. A few quick blows and the enraged driver left his second victim face down in the dirt and passed on to the man who had held the rope.
“Hurrah for Bill!” yelled The Orphan, hopping first on one foot and then on the other in his joy. “Set ’em up in the other alley! I didn’t know you had it in you, Bill! Good boy!” he shouted as Bill clinched with the third cowboy. “Oh, that was a beauty! Right on the nose–oh, what a whopper to get on the jaw! Whoop her up! Fine, fine!” he laughed as Bill dropped his man. “‘And subsequent proceedings interested him no more!’ Next!” he cried as Bill wheeled on the last of the group. “Eat him up, Bill!–that’s the way! Just above the belt for his–Good! All down!” he yelled madly as Bill, drawing his arm back from the stomach of the falling puncher, sent a swift uppercut hissing to the jaw. “You lifted him five feet, Bill,” The Orphan exulted as Bill wheeled for more worlds to conquer.
“Where’s the rest of the gang?” savagely yelled the driver, looking twice at The Orphan before he was sure of his identity. “Where’s the rest of ’em?” he shouted again, running around the bend in hot search. “Come out and fight, you cowards!” they heard him cry, and straightway the outlaw and the guardian of the law clung to each other for support as they cried with joy.