dlink! Fah Moo dlink chop-chop--plenty--no can do!"

And that was all there was to it. He yipped and yapped, clutched his
stomach but would not come out of his corner nor touch the emetic. The
boys were in despair, and their comrades were of no help, Snake even
suggesting that it served the Chink right for taking the stuff. But
just when it seemed that Fah Moo would raise the roof with his yells,
Dr. Taylor arrived in his rattling flivver and took charge of the case.

"What did he take?" was his first question.

"Poison!" chorused the whole Diamond X outfit.

"All right, but what kind? I can't tell what to give him to counteract
it until I know what poison it was," said the medical man.

"Here's the dope!" announced Yellin' Kid, handing over the bottle
containing what was left of the Elixer.

Dr. Taylor smelled it, tipped the flask to get a little of the mixture
on his finger and then, gingerly, applied the digit to his tongue. He
waited for any possible reaction, and then took a larger taste of the
stuff. Then a slow smile spread over his face as he indulged in even a
bigger "swig," as Snake called it.

"This stuff isn't poison," he said, setting the bottle back on the
table. "If this is all the Chink drank he won't die."

"Not if he took three bottles of it?" asked Bud.

"Not if he took a dozen. It may make him mighty sick, but he won't die
this trip."

"What is that stuff?" asked Nort.

"Sarsaparilla!" was the chuckling answer. "Nothing but good,
old-fashioned sarsaparilla soda pop with the pop left out. It's as
flat as ditch water. Where'd you get it?"

"Bought it from an old geezer who said it was Elixer of Life," Snake
informed the doctor.

"You mean old Tosh?"

"Don't know what his name is," Bud said, "but he's an old man and he
has a place back here in a cave. We caught him, a little while ago,
brewing the stuff. Just before that we found some of our cattle dead
and we sort of jumped to the conclusion that he'd poisoned the animals.
Then, when we got here and found the Chink taking on so, and discovered
the three bottles in his kitchen, empty, we thought he was poisoned."

"Not a bit of it!" chuckled Dr. Taylor. "A barrel of that wouldn't
poison anybody, though, as I said, it would make them ill and give
considerable pain. Elixer of Life! Ha! Ha!"

"Do you know this old man--what did you say his name was?" asked Dick.

"Old Tosh he calls himself. Might better be _Bosh_! N