her's fi' cents' worth o' grit in you, Mister Sandy Joyce, an' an
atom o' savvee in your fool brain, Toby, you'll take a hand in the
game."

Minky looked on in silent approval. Anything directed against James
was bound to meet with his approval just now. But Sandy cleared his
throat, and lounged with his back against the counter.

"An' wot, I'd ast, is goin' to hurt this tough?" he inquired, with a
dash of his usual sarcasm.

Sunny flew at his drink and gulped it down.

"How do I know?" he cried scornfully.

"Jest so."

Toby grinned.

"You're a bright one, Sunny. You're so bright, you dazzle my eyes," he
cried.

But Sunny was absorbed in a thought that was hazily hovering in the
back of his brain, and let the insult pass.

"How ken I tell jest wot we're goin' to do," he cried. "Wot we want to
do is to kind o' help that pore crittur Zip out first. Ther' he is wi'
two kids to see to, which is sure more than one man's work, an' at the
same time he's got to dig up that mudbank claim of his. He don't see
the thing's impossible, 'cos he's that big in mind he can't see small
things like that. But I ain't big that aways, an' I ken see. If he
goes on diggin' wot's his kids goin' to do, an' if he don't dig wot's
they goin' to do anyways. We'll hev to form a committee--"

"Sort o' trust," grinned Toby.

But Sunny passed over his levity and seized upon his suggestion.

"I 'lows your fool head's tho't somethin' wiser than it guessed," he
said. "That's just wot we need. Ther' should be a trust to see after
him. An' after it's got his kids fixed right--"

Sunny broke off as the tall figure of Wild Bill threw its shadow
across the window of the store. The next moment the man himself
entered the room.

He nodded silently, and was about to fling himself into one of the
chairs, when Toby, in jocular anticipation, threw Sunny's proposition
at him.

"Say, Sunny's woke up an' bin thinkin'," he cried. "I allow his brain
is shockin' wonderful. Guess he's got sick o' restin' an' reckons he
got a notion for makin' a trust lay-out."

"The Zip Trust," added Sandy, with a laugh, in which Toby joined
heartily.

"Yes. He guesses Zip needs lookin' after," declared the remittance man
in the midst of his mirth, glancing round for appreciation of the
joke.

But the encouragement he received fell short of his expectations, and
his laugh died out quite abruptly. There was no responsive smile on
Minky's face. Sunny was glowering su