Make a little garden on the shore, and let 'em eat at tables under
trees an' grape-arbors--'"

"Well, why not?" asked Joe.

"Haven't I been tellin' ye I'm thinkin' of it? It's only yer way of
hintin' that's funny to me,--yer way of sayin' I'd make more money,
because ye're afraid of preachin' at any of us: partly because ye know
the little good it 'd be, and partly because ye have humor. Well, I'm
thinkin' ye'll git yer way. I'M willin' to go into the missionary
business with ye!"

"Mike!" said Joe, angrily, but he grew very red and failed to meet the
other's eye, "I'm not--"

"Yes, ye are!" cried Sheehan. "Yes, sir! It's a thing ye prob'ly
haven't had the nerve to say to yerself since a boy, but that's yer
notion inside: ye're little better than a missionary! It took me a
long while to understand what was drivin' ye, but I do now. And ye've
gone the right way about it, because we know ye'll stand fer us when
we're in trouble and fight fer us till we git a square deal, as ye're
goin' to fight for Happy now."

Joe looked deeply troubled. "Never mind," he said, crossly, and with
visible embarrassment. "You think you couldn't make more at the Beach
if you ran it on my plan?"

"I'm game to try," said Sheehan, slowly. "I'm too old to hold 'em down
out there the way I yoosta could, and I'm sick of it--sick of it into
the very bones of me!" He wiped his forehead. "Where's Claudine?"

"Held as a witness."

"I'm not sorry fer HER!" said the red-bearded man, emphatically.
"Women o' that kind are so light-headed it's a wonder they don't float.
Think of her pickin' up Cory's gun from the floor and hidin' it in her
clothes! Took it fer granted it was Happy's, and thought she'd help
him by hidin' it! There's a hard point fer ye, Joe: to prove the gun
belonged to Cory. There's nobody about here could swear to it. I
couldn't myself, though I forced him to stick it back in his pocket
yesterday. He was a wanderer, too; and ye'll have to send a keen one to
trace him, I'm thinkin', to find where he got it, so's ye can show it
in court."

"I'm going myself. I've found out that he came here from Denver."

"And from where before that?"

"I don't know, but I'll keep on travelling till I get what I want."

"That's right, my boy," exclaimed the other, heartily, "It may be a
long trip, but ye're all the little man has to depend on. Did ye
notice the Tocsin didn't even give him the credit fer givin' himself
up?"

"Y