"Yes, keep cool, Kunnel, it's only our solicitude for your welfare," chipped in Foster. Then addressing the crowd in a general sort of way he speculated, "Curious how a man, a plain American citizen like Colonel Peavy, wins a place in the innermost affections of a whole people." "That's so!" murmured the rest. "He can't grow bald without deep sympathy from his fellow-citizens." The old Colonel glared in speechless wrath. "Say! gents," pleaded Gordon, "let up on the old man for the present. He's going to need all of himself if he gets out o' the trap he's in now." He waved his fat hand over the Colonel's head, and smiled blandly at the crowd hugging the stove. "My head may be bald," grated the old man with a death's-head grin, indescribably ferocious, "but it's got brains enough in it to 'skunk' any man in this crowd three games out o' five." "The ol' man rather gits the laugh on y' there, gents," called Robie from the back side of the counter. "I haint seen the old skeesix play better'n he did last night in years." "Not since his return from Canada, after the war, I reckon," said Amos from the kerosene barrel. "Hold on, Amos," put in the Judge warningly, "that's out-lawed. Talking about being bald and the war reminds me of the night Walters and I-- By the way, where is Walters to-night?" "Sick," put in the Colonel, straightening up exultantly. "I waxed him three straight games last night. You won't see him again till spring. Skunked him once, and beat him twice." "Oh git out." "Hear the old seed twitter!" "Did you ever notice, gentlemen, how lying and baldness go together?" queried Foster reflectively. "No! Do they?" "Invariably. I've known many colossal liars, and they were all as bald as apples." The Colonel was getting nervous, and was so slow that even Gordon (who could sit and stare at the board a full half hour without moving) began to be impatient. "Come! Colonel, marshal your forces a little more promptly. If you're going at me _echelon_, sound y'r bugle; I'm ready." "Don't worry," answered the Colonel, in his calmest nasal, "I'll accommodate you with all the fight you want." "Did it ever occur to you," began the Judge again, addressing the crowd generally, as he moved back to the stove and lit another cigar, "did it ever occur to you that it is a little singular a man should get bald on the _top_ of his head first? Curious fact. So accustomed to it we no longer wonder at it. Now see the Colonel there. Quite a growth of hair on his clap-boarding, as it were, but devilish thin on his roof." Here the Colonel looked up and tried to say something, but the Judge went on imperturbably. "Now I take it that it's strictly providential that a man gets bald on top of his head first, because if he _must_ get bald it is best to get bald where it can be covered up."