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front of the tree, and first I was going to hide behind that; but maybe it was

luckier I didn't. ssssssssss

There was four or five men cavorting around on their horses in the open

place before the log store, cussing and yelling, and trying to get at a couple of

young chaps that was behind the wood-rank alongside of the steamboat landing

but they couldn't come it. Every time one of them showed himself on the river

side of the wood-pile he got shot at. The two boys was squatting back to back

behind the pile, so they could watch both ways.

By-and-by the men stopped cavorting around and yelling. They started

riding towards the store; then up gets one of the boys, draws a steady bead over

the wood-rank, and drops one of them out of his saddle. All the men jumped

off of their horses and grabbed the hurt one and started to carry him to the store;

and that minute the two boys started on the run. They got half-way to the tree

I was in before the men noticed. Then the men see them, and jumped on their

horses and took out after them. They gained on the boys, but it didn't do no

good, the boys had too good a start; they got to the wood-pile that was in front

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