back room."

"And are you going to play, Ike?"

"Not to-night, thank you. I aint no saint, but I aint a blank fool
altogether, and to-night I got to keep level. To-day's the boss's
remittance day. He's got his cheque, I've heard, and they're goin' to
roll him."

"Roll him?"

"Yes, clean him out. So I surmise it'd be wise for me to be on hand."

"Why, what have you got to do with it, Ike?"

Ike paused for a few moments, while he filled his pipe, preparatory to
going out.

"Well, that's what I don't right know. It aint any of my own business.
Course he's my boss, but it aint that. Somehow, that Kiddie has got a
hitch onto my innards, and I can't let him get away. He's got such a
blank slick way with him that he makes you feel like doin' the things
you hate to do. Why, when he smiles at you the sun begins to shine.
That's so. Why, you saw that race this afternoon?"

"Yes, the last heat."

"Well, did you observe Slipper come in?"

"Well, yes, I did. And I could not understand why Slipper was not
running. Why didn't you run him, Ike?"

"Why?" said Ike, "that's what I don't know. There aint nothin' on four
legs with horsehide on in these here Territories that can make Slipper
take dust, but then--well, I knowed he had money on the Swallow. But I
guess I must be goin'."

"But what are you going to do?"

"Oh, I'll fall down somewheres and go to sleep. You see lots of things
when you're asleep, providin' you know how to accomplish it."

"Shall I go with you?" asked Shock.

Ike regarded him curiously.

"Guess you wouldn't care to be mixed up in this kind of thing. But
blame it, if I don't think you'd stay with it if it was in your line,
which it aint."

"But suppose you get into difficulty."

"Well," said Ike, smiling a slow smile, "when I want you I'll send for
you," and with that he passed out into the night.

XII

HIS KEEPER

Till long after midnight Shock sat over the fire pondering the events
of the day, and trying to make real to himself the strange series of
happenings that had marked his introduction to his work in this
country. His life for the last month had been so unlike anything in his
past as to seem quite unnatural.

As he sat thus musing over the past and planning for the future, a
knock came to the door, and almost immediately there came in a little
man, short and squat, with humped shoulders, bushy, grizzled hair and
beard, through which peered sharp little black eyes. His