While Captain Burr was harnessing his team, a job in which the tin-peddler always refused assistance, Loudon rode down the street with the intention of buying tobacco at the Blue Pigeon Store. In front of the Happy Heart Saloon, opposite the Palace Dance Hall, stood Sheriff Block and five citizens. As Loudon rode past the sheriff made a low-voiced remark and laughed loudly. Instantly the five citizens burst into cackles. For Block, besides being sheriff, owned both the Palace and the Happy Heart. Hence most of Farewell's inhabitants took their cue from him. The cachination in front of the Happy Heart grated on Loudon's feelings as well as his ear-drums. He knew that the sheriff, kindly soul, was holding him up to ridicule. Kate's refusal of him had made Loudon somewhat reckless. He had intended having it out with Rudd, but Captain Burr had forestalled him there. Here, however, was the sheriff of the county, another enemy. Loudon turned his horse. Promptly the five friends oozed in various directions. Sheriff Block, a lonely figure, held his ground. "I hear yo're lookin' for me," announced Loudon, a laughing devil in his gray eyes. "Who told yuh?" queried the sheriff, puzzled. He had expected something totally different. "Who told me? Oh, several little birds. So I want to find out about it. I wouldn't like to put yuh to any trouble--such as huntin' me up, for instance." "That's good o' yuh. But I ain't lookin' for yuh, not yet." "I'm right glad to hear that. Them little birds must 'a' lied. Powerful lot o' lyin' goin' on in the world, ain't there?" "I dunno nothin' about it," mumbled the sheriff, who was becoming more and more puzzled at the apparently aimless words of the puncher. "Don't yuh?" grinned Loudon. "That's shore hard to believe." The sheriff warily refused to take offence, and mumbled unintelligibly. "Forget that afternoon in the draw west o' Little Bear Mountain?" relentlessly pursued Loudon. "We had some words--remember? Yuh said somethin' about me havin' the drop. I ain't got the drop now. My hands are on the horn. Yore's are hooked in yore belt. But I'll lay yuh two to one I bust yuh plumb centre before yuh can pull. Take me up?" Loudon's lips were smiling, but his eyes stared with a disconcerting gray chilliness into the small black eyes of Sheriff Block. The officer's eyelids wavered, winked, and Block shifted his gaze to Loudon's chin. "I ain't startin' no gun-play for nothin'," said Block with finality. Loudon held up a ten-dollar gold piece. "Two to one," he urged. But the sheriff perceived that the hand holding the gold piece was Loudon's left hand, and he could not quite screw his courage to the sticking-point. Block was ordinarily brave enough, but he was bad, and as a rule there is at least one individual whom the bad man fears. And Block feared Loudon.