e, and finally tore herself away from them to
the anxious mother at the cottage, naturally jealous of each moment of
her darling's company.

"Don't see how Eph. ever saved so much. Hasn't had any wages since
ours failed, as I know of. Mine always go fast as earned, and thought
everybody's did," said one, when Jessica had left them.

"Some folks have all the luck! Why didn't it happen to me to have money
to give her? or to offer first to go hunt them liars? Shucks!" said
Samson, in disgust. Though he had been back some time from escorting
the stranger "off bounds," that task had left him in a bad humor.

"Well, the captain'd tell me envy was wicked, and when I was hearing
her say it I'd believe it. But I do envy old eighty his chance,"
complained Joe. "Hello! there's Ferd! Come to think of it I haven't
noticed him around these two days. Not since that stranger cast his ugly
shadow on the ranch. Hi, there, Dwarf! Where you been?"

"Where I seen bad doings."

"Right. Seeing you was there yourself. What doings was they?"

In ordinary the older men had little to say to Antonio's "Left Hand,"
but he afforded them diversion, just then, when they were all a little
anxious and downhearted over their captain's departure on what seemed to
some of them a wild-goose chase.

Ferd went through a pantomime of theft. Furtively putting one hand
into his neighbor's pocket to instantly thrust it back into his own.
He produced a buckskin bag and twisting some eucalyptus leaves into
rolls, suggesting those of money, thrust these within the bag and that
within his jacket. Then he glanced about with an absurdly innocent
expression, threw his shoulders back, and stepped forward a few paces
with so firm a step and erect a bearing that more than one instantly
recognized the mimicry.

"Forty-niner."

Having produced the effect he had intended, Ferd slouched back into his
own natural attitude and begged:

"Something to eat."

At that moment Ephraim had been approaching and was an indignant witness
of this performance, nor was he less quick to see its significance
than his mates had been. Also, to him that buckskin bag was a familiar
object. With one stride he collared Ferd and shook him like a rat.

"You imp! What do you mean by that? And how came you by Elsa Winkler's
pouch?"

Ferd broke from his captor and his face changed color beneath its
filth. He was one who was perfectly satisfied to live in a country
where water was scarce;