So I was getting ready to lay down on top of a level
pile of boards and go to sleep when I hearn a curious
kind of noise a way off, like it must be at the edge
of town.
It sounded like quite a bunch of cattle might
shuffling along a dusty road. The night was so
quiet you could hear things plain from a long ways
off. It growed a little louder and a little nearer.
And then it struck a plank bridge somewheres,
and come acrost it with a clatter. Then I knowed
it wasn't cattle. Cows and steers don't make that
cantering kind of noise as a rule; they trot. It was
hosses crossing that bridge. And they was quite a
lot of 'em.
As they struck the dirt road agin, I hearn a shot.
And then another and another. Then a dozen all
to oncet, and away off through the night a woman
screamed.
I seen the man in the telephone place fling down
his book and grab a pistol from I don't know where.
He stepped out into the street and fired three shots
into the air as fast as he could pull the trigger. And
as he done so they was a light flashed out in a build-
ing way down the railroad track, and shots come
answering from there. Men's voices began to yell
out; they was the noise of people running along
plank sidewalks, and windows opening in the dark.
Then with a rush the galloping noise come nearer,
come closet; raced by the place where I was hiding,
and nigh a hundred men with guns swept right
into the middle of that square and pulled their
hosses up.
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