asked in an
undertone.

"No; who is he?"

"That is a Medicine Bend confidence man, Perry. Do you remember the
woman you helped out with a ticket to Iowa? Perry is her husband--the
man that Dave Hawk made pay up."

Perry was a type of the Sellersville crowd now being evicted. There
was much talk as the soldiers urged and drove the gang out of one
haunt after another and a good deal of threatening as the leaders
marched out in front of Stanley.

"Who is running this camp?" demanded the officer curtly. The men
looked at one another. A fat, slow-moving man with small blue eyes and
a wheezy voice answered: "Why, no one in particular, colonel. We're
just a-camping in a bunch. What's a-matter? Seagrue here," he nodded
to a sharp-jawed companion, "and Perry," he added, jerking his thumb
toward the scarred-faced man, "and me own these two big tents in
partners."

"What's your name?"

"My name's Rebstock."

"Produce the axes stolen here from these two men," said Stanley,
indicating the choppers behind him. There was a jangle of talk between
Rebstock and his associates, and Perry, much against his inclination,
was despatched to hunt up the axes. It was only a moment before he
returned with them.

Rebstock, with a show of virtue, reprimanded Perry severely for
harboring the men that had stolen the axes. "Sorry it happened,
colonel," he grumbled, after he had abused the thieves roundly in a
general way, "and I'll see it doesn't happen again. We can't watch
everybody in a place like this. Tell your men," he continued,
expanding his chest, "to leave their axes with me when they come to
Sellersville--what?"

The assurances were lost on Stanley. "Rebstock," said he, in a tone
that Bucks had not heard before from him, "take your personal effects,
all of you--and nothing else--and load them on a flatboat. I will give
you one hour to get-out of here."

Rebstock almost fell over backward. He wheezed in amazement. There was
an outburst of indignant protests. A dozen men clamored at once. Perry
rushed forward to threaten Stanley; others cursed and defied him.

"Who are you, and what do you mean giving orders like that?" demanded
Seagrue, confronting him angrily.

"No matter who I am, you will obey the orders. And you can't take any
tents or gambling apparatus or liquors. Pack up your clothes and camp
stuff--nothing else--and get out."

If a bombshell had dropped into Sellersville, consternation could not
have been more com