"'I
said in my haste, All men are liars.'" This made us merry as we stood
among the chairs in the congested hall.

I left the ladies, and sought the bunk house. I had heard the cheers,
but I was curious also to see the men, and how they were taking it.
There was but little for the eye. There was much noise in the room. They
were getting ready to come to church,--brushing their hair, shaving, and
making themselves clean, amid talk occasionally profane and continuously
diverting.

"Well, I'm a Christian, anyway," one declared.

"I'm a Mormon, I guess," said another.

"I belong to the Knights of Pythias," said a third.

"I'm a Mohammedist," said a fourth; "I hope I ain't goin' to hear
nothin' to shock me."

And they went on with their joking. But Trampas was out of the joking.
He lay on his bed reading a newspaper, and took no pains to look
pleasant. My eyes were considering him when the blithe Scipio came in.

"Don't look so bashful," said he. "There's only us girls here."

He had been helping the Virginian move his belongings from the bunk
house over to the foreman's cabin. He himself was to occupy the
Virginian's old bed here. "And I hope sleepin' in it will bring me some
of his luck," said Scipio. "Yu'd ought to've seen us when he told us in
his quiet way. Well," Scipio sighed a little, "it must feel good to have
your friends glad about you."

"Especially Trampas," said I. "The Judge knows about that," I added.

"Knows, does he? What's he say?" Scipio drew me quickly out of the bunk
house.

"Says it's no business of his."

"Said nothing but that?" Scipio's curiosity seemed strangely intense.
"Made no suggestion? Not a thing?"

"Not a thing. Said he didn't want to know and didn't care."

"How did he happen to hear about it?" snapped Scipio. "You told him!"
he immediately guessed. "He never would." And Scipio jerked his thumb
at the Virginian, who appeared for a moment in the lighted window of the
new quarters he was arranging. "He never would tell," Scipio repeated.
"And so the Judge never made a suggestion to him," he muttered, nodding
in the darkness. "So it's just his own notion. Just like him, too, come
to think of it. Only I didn't expect--well, I guess he could surprise me
any day he tried."

"You're surprising me now," I said. "What's it all about?"

"Oh, him and Trampas."

"What? Nothing surely happened yet?" I was as curious as Scipio had
been.

"No, not yet. But there will."

"Great H