"And never been outside the Territory!" commented Hardy Atkins _sotto voce_. Something about this last remark seemed to touch the loquacious Brigham, for he answered it with spirit: "Well, that's more than some folks can say," he retorted. "I sure never run no hawse race with the sheriff out of Texas!" "No, you pore, ignorant Jack Mormon," jeered Atkins; "and you never rode no circus hawse at Coney Island, neither. I've seen fellers that knowed yore kinfolks down on the river, and they swore to Gawd you never been outside of Arizona. More'n that, they said you was a worser liar than old Tom Pepper--and he got kicked out of hell fer lyin'." A guffaw greeted this allusion to the fate of poor old Tom; but Brigham was not to be downed by comparisons. "Yes," he drawled; "I heerd about Tom Pepper. I heerd say he was a Texican, and the only right smart one they was; and the people down there was so dog ignorant, everything he told 'em they thought it was a lie. Built up quite a reputation that way--like me, here. Seems like every time I tell these Arizona Texicans anything, they up and say I'm lyin'." He ran his eye over his audience and, finding no one to combat him further, he lapsed into a mellow philosophy. "Yes," he said, cocking his eye again at Bowles; "I'm an ignorant kind of a feller, and I don't deny it; but I ain't one of these men that won't believe a thing jest because I never seen it. Now, here's a gentleman here--I don't even know his name--but the chances are, if he's ever been to Coney, he'll tell you my stories is nothin'." "How about that hundred-foot pole?" inquired Poker Bill, as Bowles bowed and blushed. "Yes, sure!" agreed Brigham readily. "We'll take that one now and let it go fer the bunch. If that's true, they're all true, eh?" "That's me!" observed Bill laconically. "All right, then, stranger," continued Brigham. "We'll jest leave the matter with you, and if what I said ain't true I'll never open my head again. I was tellin' these pore, ignorant Texas cotton-pickers that back at Coney Island they was a feller that did high divin'--ever see anything like that? All right, then, this is what I told 'em. I told 'em this divin' sport had a pole a hundred foot high, with a tank of water at the bottom six foot deep and mebbe ten foot square, and when it come time he climbed up to the top and stood on a little platform, facin' backwards and lookin' into a pocket mirror. Then he begun to lean over backwards, and finally, when everything was set, he threw a flip-flap and hit that tank a dead center without hurtin' himself a bit. Now, how about it--is that a lie?" He looked up at Bowles with a steady gaze; and that gentleman did not fail him. "Why, no," he said; "really, I see no reason to doubt what you say. Of course, I haven't been to Coney Island recently, but such events are quite a common occurrence there."