I cleaned and prepared my pistols for this man.
At another time I might have been disposed to
avoid this fellow. Now I wanted to meet him. It
was not particularly for what he had said or done,
but he had long been the terror of the camp; and
with something of a spirit of chivalry and determi
nation to revenge some wrongs of men less ready to
fight, I quietly resolved to meet this man in mortal
combat. Of course my own desperate condition
contributed to make me reckless, and tenfold more
ready to resent an insult. If I bore myself well
in the scene that followed it was owing more to that,
perhaps, than to manly valour.
As the men gathered into Deadwood camp, Hirst among the others, I entered the main saloon and called the boys to the bar in a long red and blue-shirted line. We took a drink, and then, after the fashion of the time, I drew a revolver, and declared myself chief of the town. This is the way a man proceeded in those days who had a wrong to avenge. If his enemy was in camp this was his signal to "heel" himself and come upon the ground. I passed from one saloon to another, making this same declaration until toward midnight. While standing with a knot of miners at the bar of Dean s billiard saloon, Hirst entered the far end of the establishment ; a tall, splendid fellow, with his hat pushed far back from his brow, flashing eyes, and a pistol in his hand.
Not a sound was heard but the resolute tread of Hirst, as he advanced partly toward me and partly
