or would
the re-awakening of the camp occur until evening. Ordinarily the quiet
of the long afternoon would have been pleasant enough to the
hard-working storekeeper. For surely there is something approaching
delight in the leisure moments of a day's hard and prosperous work.
But just now Minky had little ease of mind. And these long hours, when
the camp was practically deserted, had become a sort of nightmare to
him. The gold-dust stored in the dim recesses of his cellars haunted
him. The outlaw, James, was a constant dread. For he felt that his
store held a bait which might well be irresistible to that individual.
Experienced as he was in the ways of frontier life, the advent of the
strangers of the night before had started a train of alarm which
threatened quickly to grow into panic.

He was pondering this matter when Sunny Oak, accompanied by the
careless Toby Jenks, lounged into the store. With a quick, almost
furtive eye the storekeeper glanced up to ascertain the identity of
the newcomers. And, when he recognized them, such was the hold his
alarm had upon him, that his first thought was as to their fitness to
help in case of his own emergency. But his fleeting hope received a
prompt negative. Sunny was useless, he decided. And Toby--well, Toby
was so far an unknown quantity in all things except his power of
spending on drink the money he had never earned.

"Ain't out on your claim?" he greeted the remittance man casually.

"Too blamed hot," Toby retorted, winking heavily.

Then he mopped his face and ordered two whiskies.

"That stuff won't cool you down any," observed Minky, passing behind
his counter.

"No," Toby admitted doubtfully. Then with a bright look of intelligence.
"But it'll buck a feller so it don't seem so bad--the heat, I mean."
His afterthought set Sunny grinning.

Minky set out two glasses and passed the bottle. The men helped
themselves, and with a simultaneous "How!" gulped their drinks down
thirstily.

Minky re-corked the bottle and wiped a few drops of water from the
counter.

"So Zip's around," he said, as the glasses were returned to the
counter. And instantly Sunny's face became unusually serious.

"Say," he cried, with a hard look in his good-natured eyes. "D'you
ever feel real mad about things? So mad, I mean, you want to get right
out an' hurt somebody or somethin'? So mad, folks is likely to git
busy an' string you up with a rawhide? I'm sure mostly dead easy as a
man, bu