rook fell in a tiny waterfall
over the edge of the precipice. These innocent instruments and victims
of the greed and passions of man!

These things happened, my friends. Let you and me, and all of those who
love America and the West, send up a silent prayer to the Creator that
they are of the past, that they may never happen again--to leave such
harrowing pictures in the minds of men.

CHAPTER XVI

"MEDICINE"

The sun was shining on the Star Circle Ranch. Whitey sat in the doorway
of the bunk house, and listened to the talk and laughter of two or three
idle punchers inside. Two days had passed since the tragedy. Though the
laughing cowboys had not forgotten it, it was already a thing of the
past; "all in a day's work." For it was like that in the West, in those
times--death one day, laughter the next.

Another being sat in the sunshine near the distant Bar O Ranch house;
squat, bow-legged, his face wrinkled with anxiety and expectancy, he
looked longingly off at the dusty road along which Whitey had gone,
waiting and hoping for his friend's return. Thus sat Sitting Bull,
forgotten but not forgetting.

Injun approached Whitey, from the direction of the Star Circle Ranch
house. In his hand was an object which he regarded gravely as he walked.
Two grunted words at a time he used in telling Whitey the meaning of
this object.

The ranchmen had thought that Injun's services on the night of the
fight deserved some reward. A messenger had been sent to Jimtown, and
had returned with the reward, which had just been presented to Injun. It
was a stickpin, a large imitation emerald, in a solid gold setting, to
be inserted in one's necktie, the latest thing in fashion in a country
where few men wore ties. Whitey looked at the pin, and, glad of the
chance, he laughed and laughed. Injun did not laugh. He liked the
stickpin. He was proud of it.

Louder sounds of merriment in the bunk house attracted Whitey, and,
leaving Injun to gloat over his treasure, Whitey joined the men inside.
It may have been that they, too, were glad to have laughter help them to
forget the dangers and tragedies of the times. One of them had just told
a story--which might have been a story in both senses of the word.
Knowing that a yarn usually comes with a cowboy, or a cowboy usually
comes with a yarn, Whitey sat down and waited.

I have written that most of the mirth on the Star Circle was aroused by
the troubles of others, but that was no