Birnie of the Tomahawk, down near Laramie; Telegraph Laramie if you
like and find out about me.

"Good Lord! I know the Tomahawk like a book!" cried the sheriff. "And
you're Bob Birnie's boy! Say! D'you remember dragging into camp on the
summit one time when you was about twelve years old--been hidin' out
from Injuns about three days? Well, say! I'm the feller that packed you
into the tent, and fed yuh when yuh come to. Remember the time I rode
down and stayed over night at yore place, the time Bill Nye come down
from his prospect hole up in the Snowies, bringin' word the Injuns was
up again?" The sheriff grabbed Bud's hand and held it, shaking it up and
down now and then to emphasize his words.

"Folks called you Buddy, then. I remember yuh, helpin' your mother cook
'n' wash dishes for us fellers. I kinda felt like I had a claim on yuh,
Buddy.

"Say, Bill Nye, he's famous now. Writin' books full of jokes, and all
that. He always was a comical cuss. Don't you remember how the bunch
of us laughed at him when he drifted in about dark, him and four
burros--that one he called Boomerang, that he named his paper after in
Laramie? I've told lots of times what he said when he come stoopin' into
the kitchen--how Colorou had sent him word that he'd give Bill just
four sleeps to get outa there. An, 'Hell!' says Bill. 'I didn't need
any sleeps!' An' we all turned to and cooked a hull beef yore dad had
butchered that day--and Bill loaded up with the first chunks we had
ready, and pulled his freight. He sure didn't need any sleeps--"

"Yes, you bet I remember. Jesse Cummings is your name. I sure ought
to remember you, for you and your partner saved my life, I expect. I
thought I'd seen you before, when you made me deputy. How about the kid?
Can I have him? Lew Morris, the man that kept him on the wrong side of
the law, is dead, I heard the doctor say. Jimmy got him when he pulled
his gun."

"Why, yes--if the town don't git onto me turnin' him loose, I guess you
can have the kid for all I care. He didn't take any part in the holdup,
did he Buddy?"

"He was over by the customers' desk when Lew started, to hold up the
cashier."

"Well I got enough prisoners so I guess he won't be missed. But you look
out how yuh git him outa town. Better wait til kinda late to-night. I
sure would like to see him git a show. Them two Collier kids never did
have a square deal, far as I've heard. But be careful, youngster. I want
another term off