at down on the rail gingerly with his bulging wallet.

"What with?" Pinkey inquired, humorously.

Wallie reached under his pillow and produced a pearl-handled revolver of
32 calibre.

"Before leaving I purchased this pistol."

Pinkey regarded him with a pained expression.

"Don't use that dude word, feller. Say 'gun,' 'gat,' 'six-shooter,'
anything, but don't ever say 'pistol' above a whisper."

A little crest-fallen, Wallie laid it aside and commenced to count his
money. Pinkey, he could see, was not impressed by the weapon.

"Yes, eighteen hundred exactly. I spent $250 purchasing a camping
outfit."

Pinkey looked at him incredulously. He was thinking of the frying-pan,
coffee-pot, and lard-kettle of which his own consisted. He made no
comment, however, until Wallie mentioned his portable bath-tub, which,
while expensive, he declared he considered indispensable.

"Yes," Pinkey agreed, drily, "you'll be needin' a portable bath-tub
something desperate. I wisht I had one. The last good wash I took was in
Crystal Lake the other side of the Bear-tooth Mountain. When I was done
I stood out till the sun dried me, then brushed the mud off with a
whisk-broom."

"That must have been uncomfortable," Wallie observed, politely. "I hope
you will feel at liberty to use my tub whenever you wish."

"That won't be often enough to wear it out," said Pinkey, candidly. "But
you'd better jump into your pants and git over to the land-office. We
want to nail that 160 before some other 'Scissor-bill' beats you to it."

Under Pinkey's guidance Wallie went to the land office, which was in the
rear of a secondhand store kept by Mr. Alvin Tucker, who was also the
land commissioner.

The office was in the rear and there were two routes by which it was
possible to get in touch with Mr. Tucker: one might gain admittance by
walking over the bureaus, centre-tables, and stoves that blocked the
front entrance, or he could crawl on his hands and knees through a large
roll of chicken-wire wedged into the side door of the establishment.

The main-travelled road, however, was over the tables and bureaus, and
this was chosen by Pinkey and Wallie, who found Mr. Tucker at his desk
attending to the State's business.

Mr. Tucker had been blacking a stove and had not yet removed the traces
of his previous occupation, so when Pinkey introduced him his hand was
of a colour to make Wallie hesitate for the fraction of a second before
taking it.

Mr