s, before anybody else got a show. I reckon I cleared out the
shop. The duds are a little mixed in style, but I reckon they're clean
and whole, and a man might face a lady in 'em. I left them round at the
old Buckeye Spring, where they're handy without attracting attention.
You boys can go there for a general wash-up, rig yourselves up without
saying anything, and then meander back careless and easy in your store
clothes, just as the stage is coming in, sabe?"

"Why didn't you let us know earlier?" asked Mattingly aggrievedly;
"you've been back here at least an hour."

"I've been getting some place ready for THEM," returned the new-comer.
"We might have managed to put the man somewhere, if he'd been alone, but
these women want family accommodation. There was nothing left for me to
do but to buy up Thompson's saloon."

"No?" interrupted his audience, half in incredulity, half in
protestation.

"Fact! You boys will have to take your drinks under canvas again, I
reckon! But I made Thompson let those gold-framed mirrors that used to
stand behind the bar go into the bargain, and they sort of furnish the
room. You know the saloon is one of them patent houses you can take to
pieces, and I've been reckoning you boys will have to pitch in and help
me to take the whole shanty over to the laurel bushes, and put it up
agin Kearney's cabin."

"What's all that?" said the younger Kearney, with an odd mingling of
astonishment and bashful gratification.

"Yes, I reckon yours is the cleanest house, because it's the newest, so
you'll just step out and let us knock in one o' the gables, and clap it
on to the saloon, and make ONE house of it, don't you see? There'll be
two rooms, one for the girls and the other for the old man."

The astonishment and bewilderment of the party had gradually given way
to a boyish and impatient interest.

"Hadn't we better do the job at once?" suggested Dick Mattingly.

"Or throw ourselves into those new clothes, so as to be ready," added
the younger Kearney, looking down at his ragged trousers. "I say,
Fairfax, what are the girls like, eh?"

All the others had been dying to ask the question, yet one and all
laughed at the conscious manner and blushing cheek of the questioner.

"You'll find out quick enough," returned Fairfax, whose curt
carelessness did not, however, prevent a slight increase of color on his
own cheek. "We'd better get that job off our hands before doing anything
else. So, if you