turn a trick like that, and who has so much clean-cut courage,
must be worth looking after. He's got a bad reputation, but he's plumb
white and square with me, and I'm going to be square with him. And when
you know all that I know about him you'll take his reputation as a
natural result of hard luck, spunk, and other people's devilment and
foolishness. But he's going to have a show now, all right."

"What did your men say when they saw him? Do they know who he is?" asked
Mrs. Shields anxiously.

Blake laughed: "Oh, yes, they know who he is. They ain't the talking kind
in a case like that; they won't say a word to him about what he has
done. Besides, he was under their roof, eating their food, and that's
enough for them. Of course, they were a little surprised, but not half as
much as I thought they would be. He is a man who gives a good first
impression, and the boys are all fine fellows, big-hearted, square,
clean-living and peaceful. Reputations don't count for much with them,
for they know that reputations are gossip-made in most cases. I asked
him to stay, and they haven't got no reason to object, and they won't
waste no time looking for reasons, neither. If there is any trouble at
all, it will be his own fault. Then again, they know that he is all
sand and that his gunplay is real and sudden; not that they are afraid
of him, or anybody else, for that matter, but he is the kind of a man
they like--somebody who can stand up on his own legs and give better than
he gets."

"I reckon he fills that bill, all right," laughed the sheriff. "He _can_
stand up on his own legs, and when he does he makes good. And as for
gunplay, good Lord, he's a shore wizard! I reckoned I could do things
with a gun, but he can beat me. He ain't no Boston pet, and he ain't
no city tough, not nohow. And I'd rather have him with me in a mix-up
than against me. He's the coolest proposition loose in this part of the
country at any game, and I know what I'm talking about, too."

"You promised to tell us everything about him, all you knew," reproached
Helen. "And I am sure that it will be well worth hearing."

"Well, I was saving it up 'til I could tell it all at once and when you
would all be together," he replied. "There wasn't any use of telling it
twice," he explained as he brought out a box of cigars. "These are the
same brand you sampled last time you were here," he assured his friend
as he extended the box.

"By George, that's fine!" c