ing to erase himself.

"Who brought the last?" demanded the foreman.

"I did," said a reflective voice coming from a partner lying comfortably
on his back, "and if anybody reckons I'm going to face Tophet ag'in
down that slope, he's mistaken!" The speaker was thirsty--but he had
principles.

"We must throw round for it," said the foreman, taking the dice from his
pocket.

He cast; the lowest number fell to Parkhurst, a florid, full-blooded
Texan. "All right, gentlemen," he said, wiping his forehead, and lifting
the tin pail with a resigned air, "only EF anything comes to me on that
bare stretch o' stage road,--and I'm kinder seein' things spotty and
black now, remember you ain't anywhar NEARER the water than you were! I
ain't sayin' it for myself--but it mout be rough on YOU--and"--

"Give ME the pail," interrupted a tall young fellow, rising. "I'll risk
it."

Cries of "Good old Ned," and "Hunky boy!" greeted him as he took the
pail from the perspiring Parkhurst, who at once lay down again. "You
mayn't be a professin' Christian, in good standin', Ned Bray," continued
Parkhurst from the ground, "but you're about as white as they make 'em,
and you're goin' to do a Heavenly Act! I repeat it, gents--a Heavenly
Act!"

Without a reply Bray walked off with the pail, stopping only in the
underbrush to pluck a few soft fronds of fern, part of which he put
within the crown of his hat, and stuck the rest in its band around
the outer brim, making a parasol-like shade above his shoulders. Thus
equipped he passed through the outer fringe of pines to a rocky trail
which began to descend towards the stage road. Here he was in the
full glare of the sun and its reflection from the heated rocks, which
scorched his feet and pricked his bent face into a rash. The descent was
steep and necessarily slow from the slipperiness of the desiccated pine
needles that had fallen from above. Nor were his troubles over when,
a few rods further, he came upon the stage road, which here swept in
a sharp curve round the flank of the mountain, its red dust, ground by
heavy wagons and pack-trains into a fine powder, was nevertheless so
heavy with some metallic substance that it scarcely lifted with the
foot, and he was obliged to literally wade through it. Yet there were
two hundred yards of this road to be passed before he could reach
that point of its bank where a narrow and precipitous trail dropped
diagonally from it, to creep along the mountain