"You bet it is!" purred the owner, proudly. "I paid six dollars for that gun."
Lanky smothered a laugh and his friend grinned broadly: "I reckon that 'd kill a man—if you stuck it in his ear."
"Pshaw!" snorted the dyspeptic, scornfully. "You would n't have time to get it out of that grip. Think a train-robber is going to let you unpack? Why don't you carry it in your hip-pocket, where you can get at it quickly?"
There were smiles at the stranger's belief in the hip-pocket fallacy but no one commented upon it.
"Was n't there no passengers aboard when you was stuck up?" Lanky asked the conductor.
"Yes, but you can't count passengers in on a deal like that."
Hopalong looked around aggressively: "We 're passengers, ain't we?"
"You certainly are."
"Well, if any misguided maverick gets it into his fool head to stick us up, you see what happens.
