and mouth,
yielding its delights to a man who knew a good cigar when he smoked it,
and who knew how to smoke it. At his elbow stood a coffee pot, flanked
on one side by a plate piled high with gingerbread; on the other by an
apricot pie. His eyes half-closed and his arms were folded, and a great
peace stole over him. He had the philosopher's mind which so readily
yields to the magic touch of a perfect cigar. In that short space of
time he was recompensed for a life of hardships, perils and but few
pleasures.

They sat each lost in his own thoughts, in a silence broken only by the
very low and indistinct hum of women's voices and the loud ticking of the
clock, which soon struck ten. The foreman sighed, stirred to knock the
ashes from his cigar, and then slowly reached his hand toward the pie.
Shields came to himself and very gravely relighted his cigar, watching
the blue smoke stream up over the lamp. He looked at his contented friend
for a few seconds and then broke the silence.

"Tom," he said, "what I'm going to tell you now is all meat. I couldn't
say anything about it while the women were around, for they shore worry a
lot and there wasn't no good in scaring them.

"The Cross Bar-8 outfit got saddled with the idea that they wanted a
new sheriff, and four of them didn't care a whole lot how they made the
necessary vacancy. I got word that they were going to pay Bill Howland
for the part he played, and on the face of it there wasn't nothing more
than that. It was natural enough that they were sore on him, and that
they would try to square matters. Well, of course, I couldn't let him
get wiped out and I took cards in the game. But, Lord, it wasn't what I
reckoned it was at all. He was in for his licking, all right, but _he_
was the _little_ fish--and _I_ was the _big_ one.

"They got Bill in the defile of the Backbone and were going to lynch
him--they beat him up shameful. He wouldn't tell them that I was
hand-in-glove with The Orphan, which they wanted to hear, so they tried to
scare him to lie, but it was no go.

"Well, I followed Bill and, to make it short, that is just what they had
figured on. They posted an outpost to get the drop on me when I showed
up, and he got it. Tex Williard seemed to be the officer in charge,
and he asked me questions and suggested things that made me fighting
mad inside. But I was as cool as I could be apparently, for it ain't
no good to lose your temper in a place like that. I supp