nd your friends stay with it till it quits. If
yu' happen to wish to speak to me about that pistol or bears, yu' come
around to Smith's Palace--that's the boss hotel here, ain't it?--and if
yu' don't come too late I'll not be gone to bed. But this time of night
I'm liable to get sleepy. Tell your friends good-bye for me, and be good
to yourself. I've appreciated your company."

Mr. McLean entered Smith's Palace, and, engaging a room with two beds
in it, did a little delicate lying by means of the truth. "It's a lost
boy--a runaway," he told the clerk. "He'll not be extra clean, I expect,
if he does come. Maybe he'll give me the slip, and I'll have a job cut
out to-morrow. I'll thank yu' to put my money in your safe."

The clerk placed himself at the disposal of the secret service, and Lin
walked up and down, looking at the railroad photographs for some ten
minutes, when Master Billy peered in from the street.

"Hello!" said Mr. McLean, casually, and returned to a fine picture of
Pike's Peak.

Billy observed him for a space, and, receiving no further attention,
came stepping along. "I'm not a-going back to Laramie," he stated,
warningly.

"I wouldn't," said Lin. "It ain't half the town Denver is. Well,
good-night. Sorry yu' couldn't call sooner--I'm dead sleepy."

"O-h!" Billy stood blank. "I wish I'd shook the darned old show. Say,
lemme black your boots in the morning?"

"Not sure my train don't go too early."

"I'm up! I'm up! I get around to all of 'em."

"Where do yu' sleep?"

"Sleeping with the engine-man now. Why can't you put that on me
to-night?"

"Goin' up-stairs. This gentleman wouldn't let you go up-stairs."

But the earnestly petitioned clerk consented, and Billy was the first
to hasten into the room. He stood rapturous while Lin buckled the
belt round his scanty stomach, and ingeniously buttoned the suspenders
outside the accoutrement to retard its immediate descent to earth.

"Did it ever kill a man?" asked Billy, touching the six-shooter.

"No. It ain't never had to do that, but I expect maybe it's stopped some
killin' me."

"Oh, leave me wear it just a minute! Do you collect arrow-heads? I think
they're bully. There's the finest one you ever seen." He brought out
the relic, tightly wrapped in paper, several pieces. "I foun' it myself,
camping with father. It was sticking in a crack right on top of a rock,
but nobody'd seen it till I came along. Ain't it fine?"

Mr. McLean pronounced i