tockade, and my arms and legs movin' up and down,
like one o' them dancin' jacks! It seems funny, Mr. Grey--I reckon I
looked like a darned fool--but I don't wanter feel ag'in as I did jest
then. The clinch o' my throat got tighter; everything got black about
me; I was jest goin' off and kalkilatin' it was about time for you to
advertise for another foreman, when suthin broke--fetched away!

"It was my collar button, and I dropped like a shot. It was a minute
before I could get my breath ag'in, and when I did and managed to climb
that darned stockade, and drop on the other side, thar warn't a soul to
be seen! A few hosses that stampeded in my gettin' over the fence war
all that was there! I was mighty shook up, you bet!--and to make the
hull thing perfectly ridic'lous, when I got back to the road, after all
I'd got through, darn my skin, ef thar warn't that pesky lot o' drunken
men staggerin' along, jinglin' the scads they had won, and enjoyin'
themselves, and nobody a-followin' 'em! I jined 'em jest for kempany's
sake, till we got back to town, but nothin' happened."

"But, my dear Richards," said the editor warmly, "this is no longer a
matter of mere reporting, but of business for the police. You must see
the deputy sheriff at once, and bring your complaint--or shall I? It's
no joking matter."

"Hol' on, Mr. Grey," replied Richards slowly. "I've told this to nobody
but you--nor am I goin' to--sabe? It's an affair of my own--and I reckon
I kin take care of it without goin' to the Revised Statutes of the State
of California, or callin' out the sheriff's posse."

His humorous blue eyes just then had certain steely points in them like
glittering facets as he turned them away, which the editor had
seen before on momentous occasions, and he was speaking slowly and
composedly, which the editor also knew boded no good to an adversary.

"Don't be a fool, Richards," he said quietly. "Don't take as a personal
affront what was a common, vulgar crime. You would undoubtedly have been
robbed by that rascal had not the others come along."

Richards shook his head. "I might hev bin robbed a dozen times afore
THEY came along--ef that was the little game. No, Mr. Grey,--it warn't
no robbery."

"Had you been paying court to the Senora Ramierez, like Colonel
Starbottle?" asked the editor, with a smile.

"Not much," returned Richards scornfully; "she ain't my style. But"--he
hesitated, and then added, "thar was a mighty purty gal t