CHAPTER XV.MR.DANES INTRODUCES HIMSELF.
Daylight found Jim Duff and some of his cronies of the night before either absent from Paloma, or else securely hidden.
Fred Ransom, the Colthwaite Company's representative, had also vanished.
Proprietor Ashby, of the Mansion House, was reported to be skulking in his hotel, as he did not show his face on the streets.
Morning also brought calmer counsel to the real men of Paloma.

They were now glad that they had not sullied themselves by acts of violence.
No one, when daylight came, entertained the belief that Tom Reade would suffer from any further attempts at violence, for now the little coterie of so-called "bad men" in the town were thoroughly frightened.
Tom had not been hit by the rifle shot.

He had fallen as a matter of precaution, fearing that a second shot would speed on the heels of the first.
The fellow who had fired that shot at Tom had not lingered long enough to place himself in risk of Arizona vengeance.

Even before some of the men in the crowd had had time to discover that Reade, unhurt, was laughing over his escape, a score or more had darted down the street, only to find that the unknown whom they sought was safely out of the way.
"We'll search the town from one end to the other," one excited citizen had proposed.
"We'll make a night of it." "Don't do anything of the sort," Tom had urged.

"You'll terrorize hundreds of women and children, who have no knowledge of this affair.
Jim Duff's little evening of celebration is ended and now the wisest thing for you to do is to return to your homes.