too ghastly for the day. But the Colonel went on in a harsh
whisper:

"I looked round for my gun; if I'd found it I'd have left you behind."

And the Boy kept looking down at Nig, and the birds sang, and the
locust whirred, and the hot sun filled the tent as high-tide flushes a
sea-cave.

"You've been a little hard on me, Boy, bringin' it up like
this--remindin' me--I wouldn't have gone on myself, and makin' me
admit----"

"No, no, Colonel."

"Makin' me admit that before I would have let you go on I'd have shot
you!"

"Colonel!" He loosed his hold of Nig.

"I rather reckon I owe you my life--and something else besides"--the
Colonel laid one hand on the thin shoulder where the pack-strap
pressed, and closed the other hand tight over his pardner's right--"and
I hadn't meant even to thank you neither."

"Don't, for the Lord's sake, don't!" said the younger, and neither
dared look at the other.

A scratching on the canvas, the Northern knock at the door.

"You fellers sound awake?"

A woman's voice. Under his breath, "Who the devil's that?" inquired the
Colonel, brushing his hand over his eyes. Before he got across the tent
Maudie had pushed the flap aside and put in her head.

"Hello!"

"Hell-o! How d'e do?"

He shook hands, and the younger man nodded, "Hello."

"When did you come to town?" asked the Colonel mendaciously.

"Why, nearly three weeks ago, on the Weare. Heard you had skipped out
to Sulphur with MacCann. I had some business out that way, so that's
where I been."

"Have some breakfast, won't you--dinner, I mean?"

"I put that job through at the Road House. Got to rustle around now and
get my tent up. Where's a good place?"

"Well, I--I hardly know. Goin' to stay some time?"

"Depends."

The Boy slipped off his pack.

"They've got rooms at the Gold Belt," he said.

"You mean that Dance Hall up at the Forks?"

"Oh, it ain't so far. I remember you can walk."

"I can do one or two other things. Take care you don't hurt yourself
worryin' about me."

"Hurt myself?"

"Yes. Bein' so hospittable. The way you're pressin' me to settle right
down here, near's possible--why, it's real touchin'."

He laughed, and went to the entrance to tic back the door-flap, which
was whipping and snapping in the breeze. Heaven be praised! the night
was cooler. Nig had been perplexed when he saw the pack pushed under
the table. He followed his master to the door, and stood looking at the
flap-tying, e