As Hank rounded the corner, he was staggerin' some, and wavin' his shootin'-iron. "I'm a Texas bad man," he yelps; "I'm as ba-a-ad as they make 'em, and tough as bull beef." Then, he went tearin' back'ards and for'ards like he'd pull up the station platform. "Hey!" he goes on. "I've put a _lot_ of fellers t' sleep with they boots on! Come ahaid if you want t' git planted in my private graveyard!" Next, and whilst Mace was standin' not ten feet back of him, he seen me. He spit on his pistol hand, and started my way. "You blamed polecat," he hollered, "_I'll_ learn you t' shoot off you' mouth when it ain't loaded! You' hands ain't mates and you' feet don't track, and I'm a-goin' t' plumb lay you out!" I just stayed where I was. "What's in you' craw, anyhow?" I called back. He didn't answer. He let fly! Wal, sir, I doubled up like a jack-knife, and went down kerflop. The boys got 'round me--say! talk about you' pale-faces!--and yelled to Hank to stop. He drawed another gun, and, just as I got t' my feet, went backin' off, coverin' the crowd all the time, and warnin' 'em not t' mix in. They didn't. But someone else did--Mace. Quick as a wink, she reached into a buckboard fer a whip. Next, she run straight up to Hank--and give him a _turrible_ lick! He dropped his pistols and put his two arms acrosst his eyes. "Mace! don't!" he hollered. (It'd sobered him, seemed like.) Then, he turned and took to his heels. That same second, I heerd a yell--Bergin's voice. Next, the sheriff come tearin' 'round the corner and tackled Hank. The two hit the ground like a thousand of brick. Mace come runnin' towards me, then. But the boys haided her off, and wouldn't let her git clost. "Blood's runnin' all down this side of him," says Monkey Mike. Shore enough, it was! "Chub!" yells Buckshot, "git Billy Trowbridge!" "Don't you cry, ner nothin'," says Hairoil t' Mace. And whilst he helt her back, they packed me acrosst the platform and up-stairs into one of them rooms over the lunch-counter. And then, 'fore I could say Jack Robinson, they hauled my coat off, put a wet towel 'round my forrid, and put me into bed. After that, they pulled down the curtains, and bunched t'gether on either side of my pilla. "Shucks!" I says. "I'm all right. Let me up, you blamed fools!" Just then, Monkey Mike come runnin' in with the parson, and the parson put out a hand t' make me be still. "My _dear_ friend," he says, "I'm _sorry_ this happened." And he was so darned worried lookin' that I begun t' think somethin' shore _was_ wrong with me, and I laid quiet. Next, the door opened and in come Mace! The room was so dark she couldn't see much at first. So, she stepped closter, walkin' soft, like she didn't want to jar nobody. "Alec!" she says tearful. "Macie!" She stooped over me. The boys turned they backs. Aw, my dear little gal! Her lips was cold, and tremblin'. Wal, then she turned to the bunch, speakin' awful anxious. "Is he hurt bad?" she ast, low like.