kid, for the Colonel comes up and
shuts the circulation out of both my hands.

"'I wasn't sure of you, Bill,' he says, 'till I saw you preside over
those mules out there and heard your speech--then I recognized the
gift.' He laughed like a boy, still making free with my hands. 'I'm
darn glad to see you, Bill Joyce. Now then,' he says, 'tell me all
about this killing up in the hills,' and I done so.

"After I finished he never said anything for a long time, just
drummed the desk again and looked thoughtful.

"'It's too bad you didn't speak out, Bill, when you first came in.
Now, you've showed everybody that you can talk--just a little,
anyhow,' and he smiles, 'and they all think you're the man caused the
trouble. I don't see but that you've got to stand trial. I wish I
could help you, Bill.'

"'But see here, Colonel,' I says; 'I couldn't squeal on Kink. We're
_pardners_. I just _had_ to give him a chance to cut. I played dumb
'cause I knew if I talked at all, being simple and guileless, you all
would twist me up and have the whole thing in a jiffy. That man give
me the last drop of water in his canteen on the Mojave, and him with
his own tongue swelled clean out of his mouth, too. When we was
snowed in, up in the Bitter Roots, with me snow-blind and starving,
he crawled from Sheeps-Horn clean to Miller's--snow twelve foot deep,
too, and nary a snow-shoe in miles, but he brought the outfit in to
where I was lyin' 'bout gone in. He lost some fingers and more toes
wallering through them mountain drifts that day, but he never laid
down till he brought the boys back.

"'Colonel! we've slept on the same blanket, we've et the same grub,
we've made and lost together, and I had to give him a show, that's
all. I'm into this here trouble now. Tell me how I'm going to get
out. What would you do?'

"He turns to the open window and says: 'Partners are partners!
That's my horse out there at that post. If I were you I'd run like
hell.'

"That was the willingest horse I ever rode, and I hated to sell him,
but he was tolable used up when I got across the line."

THE COLONEL AND THE HORSE-THIEF

Those marks on my arm? Oh! I got 'em playin' horse-thief. Yes,
playin'. I wasn't a real one, you know--Well, I s'pose it was sort
of a queer game. Came near bein' my last too, and if Black Hawk
hadn't been the best horse in Texas the old Colonel would've killed
me sure. He chased me six miles as it was--me with one