Arizona republican., 1911-07-29
The Rustler
A ROMANCE OF THE OLD TIME
 COW COUNTRY.
BY CHARLES ALDEN sELTZER.
Copyright, 1910, the Pearson Publish
 ing Company.

tremendously .dunped there by a careless fate and left regardless, to carry out the scheme of desolation.
 Apparently the rider was in no hurry, for as the pony topped the rise and the town burst suddenly into view the little animal pricked up its ears and Quickened its pace, only to feel the reins suddenly tighten and to hear the riders voice grufiy dis couTaging his haste.
 Therefore the pony pranced gin gerly, alert, champing the bit i'm patiently, picking its way over the lumpy hills of stone and cactus, but holding closely to the trail.
 The man lounged carelessly in the saddle, his lanl, 1.-the body swaying gracefully, his eyes, shaded by the brim of his hat. narrowing with an in- terested light as they gazed steadily at the town that lay before them.
 T reckon that must be Dry Bot tOm," he said finally.
 Half way down the slope, and still a mile and half from the town, the rider drew the pony to a halt. He dropped the reins over the high pom mel of the saddle, drew out his two guns one after the other, rolled the cylinders, and replaced the guns in the holsters. Then he shook out the reins, spoke to the pony, and the little animal broke out into a slow lope.
 An ironic traveller, passing through Dry Bottom in its younger days, be- fore civic spirit had definitely cen tered its efforts upon things nomencla- tural, had hinted that the town should be known as Dry" because of the fact that, while the town boasted seven buildings, four were saloons, and that Bottom" might be used as Q sufiiX because, in the nature of things, a town of seven buildings, four of which were used for saloons, might reasonably expect to descend to the very depths of moral iniquity.
 The ironic stranger had spoken with prophetic wisdom. Dry Bottom was trying as best it knew how to wallow in the depths of sin. Un- lovely, soiled, desolate of verdure, dumped down upon a fiat of sand in a treeless waste, amid sand-hills. sage brush, grabbed yucca, scorpions, liz ards, horned toads and Tattlesnakes, Dry Bottom had forgotten its morals, subverted its principles and neglected its God.
 As the rider approached within a few hundred yards of the edge of town a man stepped out of the door of a saloon and walked twenty or thirty feet away from it. Immediately other men followed. But these came only to a point just outside the door. For some reason which was not ap- parent to the rider they were giving the first man plenty of room.
 The rider was now able to discern the faces of the men in the group, and he gazed with interested eyes at the man who had first issued from the door of the saloon.
 The man was tall-nearly as tall as the rider-and seemed sure of him. self. He was young, seeming about thirty-fye, with a shifty, insolent eye, and a hard mouth whose lips were just now curved into a self-conscious smile. 8
 The rider approached to within fifty feet of the man, halting his pony at the very edge of the hitcking-rail that skirted the space in front of the saloon, sitting carelessly in the saddle, his eyes upon the man.
 The men who had followed the first man out-perhaps a half dozen of them-revealed their interest in divers ways. A tall man on the ex- treme end, near the rider, was watch ing the man in the street grayely. A short. fat man near the center looked on with q half sheer. Other faces wore various expressions. But all were silent.
 But not so the man in the street.
 Certainly he knew of the attention he was attracting. Men were ap- preaching from the other end of the street, joining the group in front of the saloon-which the rider now no ticed was called '"The Silver Dollar" The newcomers were inquisitive; they spoke in low tones to the men who had been there before them, inquir- ing the cause.
 But the man in the street seemed not disturbed by his audience. He stood in the place he had selected, his insolent eye rowing over the assembled company, his thin, expressive lips parting a very little to allow words to filter through them.
 Gents" he said, you're goin' to see some shootin'i I told you in there that I could keep can in the air while I put fiye holes through It. There's some of you gassed about bein' showed-not believin' me. An now I'm goin' to show you!"
 He reached down and picked up a can that had lain at his feet, remov- ing the red Autographed label, which had a picture of a large tomato in It's center. The can was revealed, naked and shining in the white sunlight. He placed the can in his left hand and drew his six-shooter with his right.
 Then he tossed the can twenty feet into the air. y While it still rose his weapon exploded, the can shook spas medically and turned clear over. Then in rapid successions followed four other explosions, the last occur ring just before the can reached the ground. The man smiled, still hold ing the smoking weapon in his hand.
 The tall man at the extreme end of the group now stepped forward and examined the can, while several other men crowded around to look. There were exclamations of surprise. .
 He's done it, boys!" said the tall roaD "porad If in five Dlacesi" He