.

"No," answered Bucks in decided but off-hand manner, "I never saw a
shooting mix-up anywhere."

"Never got shot up just for fun?" persisted Dancing. "Do you know," he
continued without waiting for an answer, "who that polite man was,
the last one you shouldered out of here?" Dancing pointed as he
spoke to the corner from which Levake had risen, but the operator,
straightening out the papers before him, did not look around.

"No, Bill, I don't know anybody here. You see I am a stranger."

"I see you are a stranger," echoed Dancing. "Let me tell you
something, then, will you?"

"Tell it quick, Bill."

"There is no cemetery in this town."

"I have understood it is very healthy, Bill," returned the operator.

"Not for everybody." Bill Dancing paused to let the words sink in, as
his big eyes fixed upon the young operator's eyes. "Not for
everybody--sometimes not for strangers. Strangers have to get used to
it. There is a river here," added the lineman sententiously. "It's
pretty swift, too."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you have got to be careful how you do things out in this
country."

"But, Bill," persisted the lad, "if there is going to be any business
done in this office we have got to have order, haven't we?" The
lineman snorted and the operator saw that his appeal had fallen flat.
"My batteries, Bill," he added, changing the subject, "are no good at
all. I sent for you because I want you to go over them now, to-night,
and start me right. What are you going to do?"

Dancing had begun to poke at the ashes in the stove. "Build a fire,"
he returned, looking about for material. He gathered up what waste
paper was at hand, pushed it into the stove, and catching up the
way-bills from the desk, threw them in on the paper and began to feel
in his wet pockets for matches.

"Hold on," cried Bucks. "What do you mean? You must be crazy!" he
exclaimed, running to the stove and pulling the way-bills out.

"Not half so crazy as you are," replied Dancing undisturbed. "I'm only
trying to show you how crazy you are. Burning up way-bills isn't a
circumstance to what you did just now. You are the looniest operator I
ever saw." As he looked at Bucks he extended his finger impressively.
"When you laid your hand on that man's shoulder to-night--the one
sitting on your stool--I wouldn't have given ten cents for your
life."

Bucks regarded him with astonishment. "Why so?"

"He's the meanest man between here and Fort Br