thered you! It's like me!"

"I mean it required diluting; you ought to have taken it in water," said
Kane.

"I reckon! It DID sorter h'ist me over to the door for a little fresh
air at first! seemed rayther scaldy to the lips. But wot of it that GOT
THAR," he put his hand gravely to his stomach, "did me pow'ful good."

"What was the matter with you?" asked Kane.

"Well, ye see, pard" (confidentially again), "I reckon it's suthin'
along o' my heart. Times it gets to poundin' away like a quartz stamp,
and then it stops suddent like, and kinder leaves ME out too."

Kane looked at him more attentively. He was a strong, powerfully built
man with a complexion that betrayed nothing more serious than
the effects of mining cookery. It was evidently a common case of
indigestion.

"I don't say it would not have done you some good if properly
administered," he replied. "If you like I'll put up a diluted quantity
and directions?"

"That's me, every time, pardner!" said the stranger with an accent of
relief. "And look yer, don't you stop at that! Ye just put me up some
samples like of anythin' you think mout be likely to hit. I'll go in for
a fair show, and then meander in every now and then, betwixt times, to
let you know. Ye don't mind my drifting in here, do ye? It's about ez
likely a place ez I struck since I've left the Sacramento boat, and my
hotel, just round the corner. Ye just sample me a bit o' everythin';
don't mind the expense. I'll take YOUR word for it. The way you--a
young fellow--jest stuck to your work in thar, cool and kam as a
woodpecker--not minding how high-toned she was--nor the jewelery and
spangles she had on--jest got me! I sez to myself, 'Rube,' sez I,
'whatever's wrong o' YOUR insides, you jest stick to that feller to set
ye right.'"

The junior partner's face reddened as he turned to his shelves
ostensibly for consultation. Conscious of his inexperience, the homely
praise of even this ignorant man was not ungrateful. He felt, too,
that his treatment of the Frenchwoman, though successful, might not be
considered remunerative from a business point of view by his partner. He
accordingly acted upon the suggestion of the stranger and put up two or
three specifics for dyspepsia. They were received with grateful alacrity
and the casual display of considerable gold in the stranger's pocket in
the process of payment. He was evidently a successful miner.

After bestowing the bottles carefully about his pe