"Thank you, gentlemen," replied Johnny quietly. "If by accident you should happen to see the desperado in question--who, I assume, can be in no way your friend--I hope you will tell him that I, too, will be at the Bella Union at eight o'clock, and that I will come heeled." "You'll be comin' alone?" said the man, "or p'rhaps yore friend----" "My friend, as you call him, is simply a miner, and has nothing to do with this," interrupted Johnny emphatically. "I thank you, sir," said the spokesman, rising. The other two, who had throughout said no word, followed his example. "Do you know Danny Randall?" asked Johnny as they moved off. If he had presented his derringer under their noses, they could not have stopped more suddenly. They stared at each other a moment. "Is he a friend of yours?" inquired the spokesman after an uncertain moment. "He likes fair play," said Johnny enigmatically. The trio moved off in the direction of town. "We don't know any more about Danny Randall than we did," observed Johnny, "but I tried a shot in the dark." "Nevertheless," I told him, "I'm going to be there; and you want to make up your mind to just that." "You will come, of course," agreed Johnny. "I suppose I cannot keep you from that. But Jim," he commanded earnestly, "you must swear to keep out of the row, unless it develops into a general one; and you must swear not to speak to me or make any sign no matter what happens. I must play a lone hand." He was firm on this point; and in the end I gave my promise, to his evident relief. "This is our visitors' day, evidently," he observed. "Here come two more men. One of them is the doctor; I'd know that hat two miles." "The other is our friend Danny Randall," said I. Dr. Rankin greeted us with a cordiality I had not suspected in him. Randall nodded in his usual diffident fashion, and slid into the oak shadow, where he squatted on his heels. "About this Scar-face Charley," he said abruptly, "I hear he's issued his defi, and you've taken him up. Do you know anything about this sort of thing?" "Not a bit," admitted Johnny frankly. "Is it a duel; and are you gentleman here to act as my seconds?" "It is not," stated the downright doctor. "It's a barroom murder and you cannot get around it; and I, for one, don't try. But now you're in for it, and you've got to go through with it." "I intend to," said Johnny. "It's not precisely that," objected Danny Randall, "for, d'ye see, he's sent you warning." "It's about all the warning you'll get!" snorted the doctor. "There's a sort of rule about it," persisted Randall. "And that's what I'm here to tell you. He'll try to come up on you suddenly, probably from behind; and he'll say 'draw and defend yourself,' and shoot you as soon after that as he can. You want to see him first, that's all." "Thanks," said Johnny. "And," exploded the doctor, "if you don't kill that fellow, by the Eternal, when you get a chance----"