ray!" cheered old Solly Jake, thinking the tale was finished.

Sick Jimmy, from behind the bar, prodded him good-humoredly.

"Dry up, Soll."

"I am dry," whimpered old Soll, "I'm dryer'n before I got drunk!"

"Here, then," pushing a bottle across the redwood slab used for a bar,
"the drinks are on Grizzley Bob and Handsome Harry, tonight."

"Was it such a big strike they made?"

"It sure was. Go on, Bob," he called to the tall, magnificently built
young spokesman, "then what?"

"After awhile I managed to crawl from under that old grizzley and when
I'd wiped the one good eye that was left, I saw him lying there as stiff
and dead as a mackerel, with Slasher sticking in his heart clean up to
the handle. It was pretty near dark then, but the sun was just showing
hisself over the top of Bear mountain when I got to Rattlesnake Bill's
cabin, and you'll scarcely believe me but I didn't have enough grit left
to signal Bill I was there. I just settled down all of a heap-like and
that's the way they found me. Bill, he got a doctor from Angel's and
after awhile I pulled out all right, but I ain't been much of a
beauty since. Well, what th--," as the door banged open to reveal an
exceedingly handsome blond youngster dragging in a cringing newcomer.

"Hi," he called, while two frolicsome imps danced in his splendid blue
eyes. "Any of you chaps got a rope handy? Time this fellow was strung up
over a limb to be a picture for coyotes to bark at!"

"Hall, you let go, there. There'll be no chaffing a tenderfoot whilst
I'm around and you know it."

"Who says so?" laughed Handsome Harry.

"My foppish friend," spoke up The Senator, "the reputation of Grizzley
Bob says so. A reputation that is the terror and admiration of every
mining camp in the mountains. A dead shot, a sure thing with the knife,
a heart to succor the oppressed and often to protect the shiftless,"
acridly.

"I thank you, Senator! Your species of implication is worthy the
splendor of your mighty apparel. The old swallow-tail retains its
pristine glory, I perceive, though your other habiliments have one by
one yielded to the ravages of time, and been replaced by the rough and
ready garments of the frontier. Perchance--"

"Hall, have I got to make you let go of this pore devil!" Bob's powerful
figure came forward into the full light of the huge fireplace. One-half
the face above the comely form was hideously repulsive. It had been
literally torn away and what re