olonel, I want to thank you for drawin' things down."

So he come up and shook me by the hand, and up files the rest and does
the same thing.

"Now, friends," says I, "hold on. Court hasn't passed sentence yet. I
pass that this crowd put up to the tune of what it can spare to
buy"--consulting the letter--"to buy Peggy a ticket West, kids
included, exceptin' only the gentleman that lost the horse."

"Why, we ain't broke altogether on Badger!" says he. "You ain't goin'
to bar me, boys?"

"Not on your life, if that's the way you feel," says I. I don't know
what amount that crowd could spare, but I'll bet high on one thing. If
you'd strong-armed the gang, you wouldn't start a bank with the
proceeds after the collection was taken. There wasn't a nickel in the
outfit. "I'm glad I didn't bring any more with me," says Burton,
strapping himself.

Of course, I was appointed to break the news to the prisoner. He
busted then; put his head on his arm and cried like a baby. But he
braced quick and stepped up to the lads. "There ain't nothing I can
say except thank you," says he. "I want to get each man's name so's I
can pay him back. Now, if anybody here knows of a job of work I can
get--well, you know what it would mean to me. Sporty life is done for
me, friends; I'll work hard for any man that'll take me."

"I got you," I says. "Come along with me and I'll explain."

Then we said by-by to the boys. I played the grand with 'em still, and
I'll just tell you why, me and you bein' such old friends. Although it
may sound queer, coming from my mouth, yet it was because I thought I
might give them boys the proper steer, sometime. You can't talk
Sunday-school to young fellers like that! They don't pay no attention
to what a gent in black clothes and a choker tells 'em; but suppose
Chantay Seeche Red--rippin', roarin' Red Saunders, that fears the face
of no man, nor the hoof of no jackass--lays his hand on a boy's
shoulder, and says, "Son, I wouldn't twist it just like that." Is he
goin' to get listened to? I reckon yes. So I played straight for
their young imaginations, and I had 'em cinched to the last hole. And
after the last one had pulled my flipper, and hoped he'd meet me soon
again, me and Burton and the new hired man took out after sheep.
"But," says Burton, still sort of dazed, "God only knows what we'll
meet before we find them. Even sheep aren't so peaceful in this
country."

He was right, too. H