gun it. When our wives won't give us any peace maybe it's time we
reformed our judgments. I'm willing to say that I think I've been
mistaken about Manning. He came over to my place for the first time a
few weeks back. I never talked with him before or got a good look at
him. Boys, a man don't get the look that that young fella has on his
face unless he's full of ideas that folks will kick him for. I felt kind
of worked up about him then, but I didn't do anything.

"Last night I rode down to Cabillo with a Dutchman, some big bug who'd
been up at the dam. I'd just been up there with Miguel. He told us that
Jim Manning is attracting notice in the old country by the work he's
doing on this dam. And he roasted us as samples of fat cattle who'd let
a man like Manning go. At least that's what I made out, for he was so
mad he talked Dutch a lot. Miguel and I made up our minds then that we'd
got in wrong. What has this fellow Fleckenstein ever done for us? Is he
going to get us branded over the country as a bunch that'll jump an
honest debt? It looks to me as if Manning had done more for us than we
knew. I'm willing to give Manning a new chance. I move we turn this
meeting into a Manning meeting and I move we send a petition to the
Secretary of the Interior to keep Manning on the job."

CHAPTER XXVII

THE THUMB PRINT

"I have been buffeted by the ages until I dominate the
desert. So do the ages buffet one another until they produce
a dominating man."

MUSINGS OF THE ELEPHANT.

Uncle Denny was on the platform before Marshall had ceased speaking.

"Friends, Mr. Marshall has said the thing we had in mind to present to
this meeting. It was to be me share to ask you for a petition. 'Twill be
the pride of Still Jim's life that the request came from a farmer and
not from me. If all here will sign and if every man here will make
himself responsible for the signatures of his neighbors, the thing can
be done in a few days and we will wire the matter to the Secretary of
the Interior. Friends, I'd rather see the tide turn for Jim than to see
Home Rule in Ireland!"

The tide had turned. One of those marvelous changes of sentiment that
sometimes sweep a community began in the wild applause that greeted the
tender little closing of Uncle Denny's speech. When Fleckenstein arrived
an hour late, he found an empty hall. His audience had dispersed to
scour the valleys for sig