rena shortly; and trudged obstinately
away to his work without vouchsafing further information.

"Which is interesting, but indefinite," said Johnny.

We found Yank easier in body, and embarked on the sea of patience in
which he was to float becalmed until his time was up. In reply to his
inquiries as to our plans, we told him we were resting a few days, which
was the truth. Then we went up to town and made two purchases; a small
tent, and a derringer pistol. They cost us three hundred and fifty
dollars. It was the quiet time of day; the miners had gone to work, and
most of the gentlemen of leisure were not yet about. Nevertheless a
dozen or so sat against the walls, smoking paper cigarettos. They all
looked at us curiously; and several nodded at Johnny in a brief,
tentative sort of fashion.

The rest of the day, and of several days following, we spent in putting
up our tent, ditching it, arranging our cooking affairs, building rough
seats, and generally making ourselves comfortable. We stretched these
things to cover as long a space of time as possible, for we secretly
dreaded facing the resumption of the old grind, and postponed it as long
as we could. A good deal of the time we spent at Yank's bedside,
generally sitting silent and constrained, to the mutual discomfort of
all three of us, I am sure. At odd intervals we practised
conscientiously and solemnly at the "draw." We would stand facing each
other, the nipples of our revolvers uncapped, and would, at the given
word, see who could cover the other first. We took turns at giving the
word. At first we were not far apart; but Johnny quickly passed me in
skill. I am always somewhat clumsy, but my friend was naturally quick
and keen at all games of skill or dexterity. He was the sort of man who
could bowl, or play pool, or billiards, or anything else rather better
than the average accustomed player the first time he tried. He turned
card tricks deftly. At the end of our three days' loafing he caught me
at the end of his pistol so regularly that there ceased to be any
contest in it. I never did get the sleeve trick; but then, I never
succeeded in fooling the merest infant with any of my attempts at
legerdemain. Johnny could flip that little derringer out with a twist of
his supple wrist as neatly as a snake darts its forked tongue. For ten
minutes at a time he practised it, over and over, as regularly as
well-oiled machinery.

"But that proves nothing as to how it