Back in the little cow-town their friend was standing in the office of the hotel, gazing abstractedly out of the window. His eyes caught and focused on a woman who was walking slowly along the other side of the square and finally paused before McCall’s "Palace," a combination saloon, dance and gambling hall. He smiled cynically as his memory ran back over those other women he had seen in cow-towns and wondered how it was that the men of the ranges could rise to a chivalry that was famed. At that distance she was strikingly pretty. Her complexion was an alluring blend of color that the gold of her hair crowned like a burst of sunshine. He noticed that her eyebrows were too prominent, too black and heavy to be Nature’s contribution. And there was about her a certain forwardness, a dash that bespoke no bashful Miss; and her clothes, though well-fitting, somehow did not please his untrained eye. A sudden impulse seized him and he strode to the door and crossed the dusty square, avoiding the piles of rusted cans, broken bottles and other rubbish that littered it. She had become interested in a dingy window but turned to greet him with a resplendent smile as he stepped to the wooden walk. He noted with displeasure that the white teeth displayed two shining panels of gold that drew his eyes irresistibly; and then and there he hated gold teeth. "Hello," she laughed. "I ’m glad to see somebody that’s alive in this town. Ain’t it awful?" He instinctively removed his sombrero and was conscious that his habitual bashfulness in the presence of members of her sex was somehow lacking. "Why, I don’t see nothin’ extra dead about it," he replied. "Most of these towns are this way in daylight. Th’ moths ain’t out yet. You should ’a’ been here last night!" "Yes? But you ’re out; an’ you look like you might be able to fly," she replied. "Yes; I suppose so," he laughed. "I see you wear _two_ of ’em," she said, glancing at his guns. "Ain’t one of them things enough?" "One usually is, mostly," he assented. "But I ’m pig-headed, so I wears two." "Ain’t it awrful hard to use two of ’em at once?" she asked, her tone flattering. "Then you ’re one of them two-gun men I ’ve heard about, ain’t you?" "An’ seen?" he smiled. "Yes, I ’ve seen a couple. Where you goin’ so early?" "Just lookin’ th’ town over," he answered, glancing over her shoulder at a cub of a cowpuncher who had opened the door of the "Retreat," but stopped in his tracks when he saw the couple in front of McCall’s. There was a look of surprised interest on the cub’s face, and it swiftly changed to one of envious interest. Hopalong’s glance did not linger, but swept carelessly along the row of shacks and back to his companion’s face without betraying his discovery. "Well; you can look it over in about ten seconds, from th’ outside," she rejoined. "An’ it’s so dusty out here. My throat is awful dry already." He had n’t noticed any dust in the air, but he nodded. "Yes; thirsty?"