s a goin' concern, an', I take it,
we mean business. So, though we ain't runnin' a noospaper, maybe we'll
need a fightin' editor after all. If we need a fightin' editor we'll
sure need a fightin' staff. That's jest logic. I'll ast you right
here, is you boys that fightin' staff? If so, guess I'm fightin'
editor. How?"

His eyes were on Sunny Oak. And that individual's unwashed face
broadened into a cheerful grin.

"Fightin' don't come under the headin' of work--proper," he said.
"Guess I'm in."

Bill turned on Sandy.

"You ain't got the modest beauty o' the vi'let," he said, with
saturnine levity. "How you feelin'?"

"Sure good," exclaimed the widower. "But I'd feel better lettin' air
into the carkis of James."

"Good," muttered Bill. "An' you, Toby?" he went on, turning on the
"remittance" man. "You're a heap fat, an' need somethin' to get it
down. How you fancy things?"

"I'd as lief scrap 'side these scalliwags as ag'in 'em," he replied,
indicating his companions with an amiable grin.

Bill nodded.

"This yere Trust is a proper an' well-found enterprise," he said
gravely. "As fer Minky, I guess we can count him in most anything that
ain't dishonest. So--wal, this is jest precautions. Ther's nuthin'
doin' yet. But you see," he added, with a shadowy grin, "life's mostly
chock-full of fancy things we don't figger on, an' anyway I can't set
around easy when folks gets gay. I'll be back to hum day after
to-morrer, or the next day, an', meanwhiles, you'll see things are
right with Zip. An' don't kep far away from Minky's store when
strangers is around. Minky's a good friend o' mine, an' a good friend
to most o' you, so--well, guns is good med'cine ef folks git gay, an'
are yearnin' to handle dust what ain't theirs."

"Them strangers?" suggested Sandy. "Is--?"

Bill shrugged.

"Strangers is strangers, an' gold-dust is gold-dust," he said
shrewdly. "An' when the two git together ther's gener'ly a disease
sets in that guns is the best med'cine for. That's 'bout all."

CHAPTER XVI

ZIP'S GRATITUDE

What a complicated machinery human nature is! It seems absurd that a
strongly defined character should be just as full of surprises as the
weakest; that the fantastic, the unexpected, even the illogical, are
as surely found in the one as in the other. It would be so nice, so
simple and easy, to sit down and foreshadow a certain course of action
for a certain individual under a given stress; and to be su