AN UNEQUAL CONTEST.
Bill Mosely was decidedly startled when the man whom he thought helpless sprang up so suddenly and approached him in a menacing manner. He rose precipitately from the rude seat on which he had settled himself comfortably, his face wearing an expression of alarm.
Richard Dewey paused and confronted him. A frown was on his face, and he appeared very much in earnest in the question he next asked. "Have you dared to ill-treat my servant, you scoundrel?" he demanded.
"Look here, stranger," said Mosely, with a faint attempt at bluster, "you'd better take care what you say to me. I'm a bad man, I am."
"I don't doubt it," said Dewey, contemptuously.
This was not altogether satisfactory to Bill Mosely, though it expressed confidence in the truth of his statement.
"You haven't answered my question," continued Dewey. "What have you done with my servant?"
"Perhaps he wasn't your servant," said Bill Mosely, evasively.
"There is but one Chinaman in this neighborhood," said Richard Dewey impatiently, "and he is my faithful servant. Did you tie him to a tree?"
"He was impudent to me," answered Bill Mosely, uneasily.