s in duty bound to give it grave
consideration; so, for a few days, certain industrious professional
gentlemen, who won money of the colonel, carefully weighed some of the
brightest pieces and tested them with acids, and tasted them and sawed
them in two, and retried them and melted them up, and had the lumps
assayed.

The result was a complete vindication of the colonel, and a loss of
considerable custom to the indiscreet barkeeper.

The colonel was as good-natured a man as had ever been known at
Challenge Hill, but, being mortal, the colonel had his occasional times
of despondency, and one of them occurred after a series of races, in
which he had staked his all on his own bay mare Tipsie, and had lost.

Looking reproachfully at his beloved animal failed to heal the aching
void of his pockets, and drinking deeply, swearing eloquently and
glaring defiantly at all mankind, were equally unproductive of coin.

The boys at the saloon sympathized most feelingly with the colonel; they
were unceasing in their invitations to drink, and they even exhibited
considerable Christian forbearance when the colonel savagely dissented
with every one who advanced any proposition, no matter how
incontrovertible.

But unappreciated sympathy grows decidedly tiresome to the giver, and it
was with a feeling of relief that the boys saw the colonel stride out of
the saloon, mount Tipsie, and gallop furiously away.

Riding on horseback has always been considered an excellent sort of
exercise, and fast riding is universally admitted to be one of the most
healthful and delightful means of exhilaration in the world.

But when a man is so absorbed in his exercise that he will not stop to
speak to a friend; and when his exhilaration is so complete that he
turns his eyes from well-meaning thumbs pointing significantly into
doorways through which a man has often passed while seeking bracing
influences, it is but natural that people should express some wonder.

The colonel was well known at Toddy Flat, Lone Hand, Blazers, Murderer's
Bar, and several other villages through which he passed, and as no one
had been seen to precede him, betting men were soon offering odds that
the colonel was running away from somebody.

Strictly speaking they were wrong, but they won all the money that had
been staked against them; for within half an hour's time there passed
over the same road an anxious-looking individual, who reined up in front
of the principal s