him with proofs of friendliness until he shed
tears from his one good eye.

He had formed a habit of parsimony born of his years of poverty, and
was so widely known as a tight man by the hundreds who had lent to him
that his creditors never at any time hoped for a reckoning. And he
never offered one; on the contrary, he had invariably flown into a rage
when dunned, and exhibited such resentment as to discourage the
practice. Now, however, the surly humor of the man began to mellow, and
in gradual stages he unloosened, the process being attended by a
disproportionate growth of the trader's cash receipts. Cautiously, at
first he let out his wit, which was logy from long disuse, and as heavy
on its feet as the Jumping Frog of Calaveras, but when they laughed at
its labored leaps and sallies his confidence grew. With the regularity
of a clock he planted cigars and ordered "a little more hard stuff,"
while his roving eye rejoiced in lachrymose profusion, its over-burden
losing itself in the tangle of his careless beard. By-and-by he
wandered through the town, trailed by a troop of tenderfeet, till the
women marked him, whereupon he fled back to the post and hugged the
bar, for he was a bashful man. When Stark's new place opened it offered
him another retreat of which he availed himself for some time. But late
in the evening he reappeared at Old Man Gale's store, walking a bit
unsteadily, and as he mounted the flight of logs to the door he stepped
once too often.

"What's become of that fourth step?" he demanded, sharply, of Poleon.

"Dere she is," said the Frenchman.

"I'm damned if it is. You moved it since I was here."

"I'll have 'im put back," laughed the other.

"Say! It's a grand thing to be rich, ain't it?"

"I don' know, I ain' never try it."

"Well, it is; and now that I've arrived, I'm goin' to change my ways
complete. No more extravagance in mine--I'll never lend another cent."

"Wat's dat?" ejaculated Doret, in amazement.

"No more hard-luck stories and 'hurry-ups' for mine. I'm the
stony-hearted jailer, I am, from now, henceforth, world 'thout end,
amen! No busted miners need apply. I've been a good thing, but to-night
I turn on the time-lock."

"Ba gosh! You're fonny feller," laughed Poleon, who had lent the
one-eyed man much money in the past and, like others, regarded him not
merely as a bad risk but as a total loss. "Mebbe you t'ink you've been
a spen't'rif all dese year."

"I've certainly blo