e kept
the population hanging about the camp, fearful that, in their absence,
things might occur, and they would miss participation in them.

The inhabitants of Suffering Creek were a virile race, strongly human,
full of interest in passing events, and men of appetite for any slices
of life that might come their way. So, having "cashed in" to the
"limit" all the gold-dust they possessed, they felt they were entitled
to spend a few days in watching events, and a few dollars in passing
the time until such events, if any, should come within their range of
vision.

What events were expected it is doubtful if the most inventive could
have put into words. The general opinion expressed--out of Minky's
hearing, of course, but to the accompaniment of deep libations of
his most execrable whisky--was that, personally, that astute trader
was, for some unaccountable reason, rapidly qualifying for the
"bug-house," and that the only thing due from them was to display
their loyalty to him by humoring him to the extent of discounting
all the "dust" they could lay hands on, and wishing him well out of
the trouble he seemed bent on laying up for himself. Meanwhile they
would take a holiday on the proceeds of their traffic, and, out of
sheer good-fellowship, stand by to help, or at least applaud, when
the _denouement_ came.

Many of the shrewder men looked to Wild Bill to give a key to the
situation. They knew him to be Minky's closest friend. Besides that,
he was a man intensely "wide" and far-seeing in matters pertaining to
such a situation as at present existed.

But Wild Bill, in this case, was the blankest of blanks in the lottery
of their draw for information. Whether this blankness was real or
affected men could not make up their minds. The gambler was so unlike
his usual self. The hard, rough, autocratic manner of the man seemed
to have undergone a subtle change. He went about full of geniality and
a lightness his fellow-citizens had never before observed in him. And,
besides, he had suddenly become the only man in the place who seemed
to lack interest in the doings of the James gang. Even beyond the bare
facts of the outrage down by the river on Sunday morning, he could not
be cajoled into discussing that individual or his doings.

No, his immediate interest apparently lay in his newly purchased
half-claim. He spent the Monday afternoon there watching the unwilling
Sandy sweating at his labors. And on the Tuesday he even pas