A buzz of applause came from the bystanders, and more than one, with sudden friendliness, called to him to get Bluffy's pistol, which had fallen on the floor.

But Keith had no need to do so, for just then a stoutly built young fellow snatched it up.

It was Dave Dennison, who had come in just as the row began.

He had been following up Bluffy.
The desperado, however, was too much shaken to have used it immediately, and when, still stunned and breathless, he rose to his feet, the crowd was too much against him to have allowed him to renew the attack, even had he then desired it.
As for Keith, he found himself suddenly the object of universal attention, and he might, had he been able to distribute himself, have slept in half the shacks in the camp.
The only remark Dave made on the event was characteristic: "Don't let him git the drop on you again." The next morning Keith found himself, in some sort, famous.

"Tacklin' Bill Bluffy without a gun and cleanin' him up," as one of his new friends expressed it, was no mean feat, and Keith was not insensible to the applause it brought him.