ld him he was a wonder so long, he'd been more'n a man if he
hadn't come to believe it--it's pretty medium hard to keep to cases
under them conditions. That's what made him cough so deep and
important, and stand there with a frown on his brow, lookin' as if
he knew a heap more than he could understand.

"I side-stepped. 'I gather,' says I, 'you want to go campin',' and
you want me to pilot you?'

"He just beamed on having the puzzle solved so simple, 'That's it
exactly,' says he.

"'I guessed it almost from the first,' says I. 'Well, we want a
team and blankets and a camp kit; that'll cost something.'

"'It isn't a question of cost,' said he, pulling out a cucumber and
skinnin' much money off the top of it. 'You take that and secure
what we need.'

"'I'll do what's right by you,' says I, and meant it. That
afternoon the Rev. Percival Mervin and Mr. E. G. W. Scraggs pulled
out with a team of mules for parts unknown. I had no more idee
what kind of land we were runnin' into than Percival himself;
howsomever, one country's a great deal like another, after all.
But I gave him the history as we journeyed--oh, sure! Hadn't he
come out for pleasure?

"'There,' says I, p'inting with the whip, 'is Dooley's Pillar, so
called because a man by the name of Dooley, helped only by his
widow, stood off eight ravagin', tearin' savages there for three
weeks.'

"'Good-ness gra-cious!' says Percival. 'And did they escape?'

"'The Injuns? Oh, yes; they got away.'

"'No, I mean the Dooleys.'

"'Yes, they got away, too; everybody got out all right--only the
name stayed.'

"'I should have thought there would have been bloodshed,' says he,
astonished and a little disappointed, too, for all he was such a
kind-hearted little man.

"'It come mighty near it,' says I; 'mighty. The only reason there
weren't was because the Injuns couldn't get at 'em--don't you
notice that cliff at the bottom?'

"'Yes.'

"'Well, that goes completely around, and it ain't climbable, so the
Injuns had to stay down.'

"'I see,' says he; and we rode three mile before he said: 'But how
did the Dooleys get there?'

"'They was ketched by a tornado in Sore-toe Canon, over yonder,'
says I, 'and blowed right to the top--the Injuns chasin' 'em
horseback and shootin' at 'em on the wing.'

"Percival he cleaned his glasses, looked hard at Dooley's Pillar,
and give me his honest opinion.

"'It,' says he, 'is very remarkable.'

"I looked at him.