Oh, jar loose a little, Governor--be a sport!" he urged.

"Here is my check for ten thousand dollars, Doctor," said the Governor,
handing the slip to Slavens; "I consider that pretty good pay for two
weeks' work."

The Governor mounted his horse, and gave the driver the word to proceed
slowly to the station.

"And if I croak on the road over the Governor'll stop payment on the
check," said Jerry facetiously.

"Well, unless you get busy with that little gun of yours and somebody
puts another hole through you on the way," the doctor assured him, "I'll
make it to the bank door with a perfectly good check in my hand."

Young Boyle held out his hand in farewell, his face suddenly sober and
serious.

"The gun has been cached," said he. "I promised mother I'd never sling
it on a man again, and I'm going to stick to it. I'm going to get a bill
put through the Legislature making it a felony to pack one, if it can be
done. I'm cured, Doctor, in more ways than one."

The cavalcade moved off down the winding road. Agnes was ablaze with
indignation.

"The idea of that man going back on his solemn word, given in the very
presence of death!"

"Never mind; that's the way he made his money, I suppose," said the
doctor. "I've got more out of it than I ever expected to get without a
row, and I'm going to make a line for that bank in Cheyenne and get the
money on his check before he changes his mind. He may get to thinking
before he gets home that Jerry isn't worth ten thousand dollars."

As they rode up to the rise of the hill, Agnes reined in and stopped.

"Here is where we changed places on the coach that day when Smith
thought there was going to be a fight," she recalled.

"Yes, this is the place," he said, looking around with a smile. "Old Hun
Shanklin was up here spying out the land."

"Smith called you to the box to help him, he told me later, because he
picked you out as a man who would put up a fight," said she.

"Well, let us hope that he made a good guess," Slavens said, "for here's
where we take up the racket with the world again."

"We changed places on the coach that day; you took the post of danger,"
she reflected, her eyes roaming the browning hills and coming back to
his face with a caress in their placid depths.

"Yes," he said, slowly, gravely; "where a man belongs."

Dr. Slavens gathered up his reins to go, yet lingered a little, looking
out over the gray leagues of that vast land unfolded with its n