onvenient
place for sentiment to display itself; and, though the temptation was
great to inquire into the cause of the tears, with a view of offering
consolation, Sam prudently looked the other way, and maintained silence.
The reader, however, knows that those tears sank into the beholder's
soul, and caused to germinate countless tender thoughts and emotions,
which were, on some future occasion, to be laid upon the alter of his
devotion to Mrs. Dolly Page. And none the less, that, in a few minutes,
the eyes which shed them resumed their roguish brightness, and the lady
was totally unconscious of having heard, seen, or felt any
embarrassment. Sentiment between them was successfully _tabooed_, so far
as utterance was concerned, for that time. And so Sam found, somewhat to
his disappointment, it continued to fall out, that whenever he got upon
delicate ground, the lady was off like a humming-bird, darting hither
and yon, so that it was impossible to put a finger upon her, or get so
much as a look at her brilliant and restless wings. But nobody ever
tired of trying to find a humming-bird at rest; and so Sam never gave up
looking for the opportune moment of speaking his mind.

Meanwhile, Lucky-dog Camp was having a fresh sensation. An organized
band of gamblers, robbers, and "road-agents" had made a swoop upon its
property, of various kinds, and had succeeded in making off with it. The
very night after the ride just mentioned, the best horses in Sam Rice's
team were stolen, making it necessary to substitute what Sam called "a
pa'r of ornery cayuses." To put the climax to his misfortunes, the
"road-agents" attacked him next morning, when, the "ornery cayuses"
becoming unmanageable, Sam was forced to surrender the treasure-box, and
the passengers their bullion. The excitement in Lucky-dog was intense. A
vigilance committee, secretly organized, lay in waiting for the
offenders, and, after a week or two, made a capture of a well-known
sporting-man, whose presence in camp had for some time been regarded
with suspicion. Short shrift was afforded him. That same afternoon his
gentlemanly person swung dangling from a gnarled pine-tree limb, and his
frightened soul had fled into outer darkness.

When this event became known to Mrs. Dolly Page, she turned ghostly
white, and then fainted dead away. Mrs. Shanghnessy was very much
concerned for her friend; berating in round terms, the brutishness of
people who could talk of such things b