l to say the creek is an embarcadero, but callin' it
so don't put anough water into it to float a steamboat from the bay, nor
clear out the reeds and tules in it. Even if the State builds you roads,
it ain't got no call to make Tasajara Creek navigable for ye; and as
that will cost as much as the road, I don't see where the money's comin'
from for both."

"There's water enough in front of 'Lige Curtis's shanty, and his
location is only a mile along the bank," returned Billings.

"Water enough for him to laze away his time fishin' when he's sober, and
deep enough to drown him when he's drunk," said Wingate. "If you
call that an embarcadero, you kin buy it any day from 'Lige,--title,
possession, and shanty thrown in,--for a demijohn o' whiskey."

The fourth man here distastefully threw back a half-nibbled biscuit
into the box, and languidly slipped from the barrel to the floor,
fastidiously flicking the crumbs from his clothes as he did so. "I
reckon somebody'll get it for nothing, if 'Lige don't pull up mighty
soon. He'll either go off his head with jim-jams or jump into the creek.
He's about as near desp'rit as they make 'em, and havin' no partner to
look after him, and him alone in the tules, ther' 's no tellin' WHAT he
may do."

Billings, stretched at full length in his chair, here gurgled
derisively. "Desp'rit!--ketch him! Why, that's his little game! He's
jist playin' off his desp'rit condition to frighten Sidon. Whenever any
one asks him why he don't go to work, whenever he's hard up for a drink,
whenever he's had too much or too little, he's workin' that desp'rit
dodge, and even talkin' o' killin' himself! Why, look here," he
continued, momentarily raising himself to a sitting posture in his
disgust, "it was only last week he was over at Rawlett's trying to
raise provisions and whiskey outer his water rights on the creek! Fact,
sir,--had it all written down lawyer-like on paper. Rawlett didn't
exactly see it in that light, and told him so. Then he up with the
desp'rit dodge and began to work that. Said if he had to starve in a
swamp like a dog he might as well kill himself at once, and would too
if he could afford the weppins. Johnson said it was not a bad idea, and
offered to lend him his revolver; Bilson handed up his shot-gun, and
left it alongside of him, and turned his head away considerate-like and
thoughtful while Rawlett handed him a box of rat pizon over the counter,
in case he preferred suthin' more