'em right down in
your dip. Ha'f that claim is mine, an' I'll have the papers wrote
reg'lar. I didn't think you was mean, an' I'm glad you ain't."

Scipio took the money reluctantly enough, and pushed it into his
pocket with a sigh. But Bill had had enough of the matter. He turned
to go, moving hastily. Then, of a sudden, he remembered. Thrusting his
hand into a side pocket of his jacket he produced a paper parcel.

"Say, Zip, I come nigh forgettin'," he cried cheerfully. "The
hash-slinger down at Minky's ast me to hand you this. It's for the
kiddies. It's candy. I'd say she's sweet on your kiddies. She said I
wasn't to let you know she'd sent 'em. So you ken jest kep your face
closed. So long."

He hurried away like a man ashamed. Scipio had such a way of looking
into his eyes. But once out of sight he slackened his pace. And
presently a smile crept into his small eyes, that set them twinkling.

"Guess I'm every kind of a fule," he muttered. "A thousand dollars!
Gee! An' ther' ain't gold within a mile of the doggone claim--'cep'
when Zip's ther'," he added thoughtfully.

CHAPTER XX

HOW THE TRUST BOUGHT MEDICINE

Wild Bill ate his supper that evening because it was his custom to do
so. He had no inclination for it, and it gave him no enjoyment. He
treated the matter much as he would have treated the stoking of a
stove on a winter's night. So long as he was filled up he cared little
for the class of the fuel.

Birdie waited on him with an attention and care such as she never
bestowed upon any other boarder at the store, and the look in her
bright eyes as she forestalled his wishes, compared with the air with
which she executed the harshly delivered orders of the rest of the
men, was quite sufficient to enlighten the casual onlooker as to the
state of her romantic heart. But her blandishments were quite lost
upon our hero. He treated her with much the same sort of indifference
he might have displayed towards one of the camp dogs.

To-night, particularly, nothing she could do or say seemed to give him
the least satisfaction. He ignored her as he ignored all the rest of
the boarders, and devoured his meal in absolute silence--in so far as
any speech went--wrapt in an impenetrable moroseness which had a
damping effect upon the entire company.

Truth to tell, he was obsessed with his thoughts and feelings against
the man James. With every passing day his resentment against him piled
up, till now he coul