tements--your misleading
statements, which you have not condescended to explain--do not
appear to be quite the thing, regarded either as business or humour.
I do not understand such motives or actions."

Major Tom looked down at him serenely and not unkindly.

"Son," he said, "there are plenty of things in the chaparral, and
on the prairies, and up the canyons that you don't understand. But
I want to thank you for listening to a garrulous old man's prosy
story. We old Texans love to talk about our adventures and our old
comrades, and the home folks have long ago learned to run when we
begin with 'Once upon a time,' so we have to spin our yarns to the
stranger within our gates."

The major smiled, but the examiner only bowed coldly, and abruptly
quitted the bank. They saw him travel diagonally across the street
in a straight line and enter the Stockmen's National Bank.

Major Tom sat down at his desk, and drew from his vest pocket the
note Roy had given him. He had read it once, but hurriedly, and now,
with something like a twinkle in his eyes, he read it again. These
were the words he read:

DEAR TOM:

I hear there's one of Uncle Sam's grayhounds going through
you, and that means that we'll catch him inside of a couple
of hours, maybe. Now, I want you to do something for me.
We've got just $2,200 in the bank, and the law requires
that we have $20,000. I let Ross and Fisher have $18,000
late yesterday afternoon to buy up that Gibson bunch of
cattle. They'll realise $40,000 in less than thirty days on
the transaction, but that won't make my cash on hand look
any prettier to that bank examiner. Now, I can't show him
those notes, for they're just plain notes of hand without
any security in sight, but you know very well that Pink
Ross and Jim Fisher are two of the finest white men God
ever made, and they'll do the square thing. You remember
Jim Fisher--he was the one who shot that faro dealer in El
Paso. I wired Sam Bradshaw's bank to send me $20,000, and
it will get in on the narrow-gauge at 10.35. You can't let
a bank examiner in to count $2,200 and close your doors.
Tom, you hold that examiner. Hold him. Hold him if you have
to rope him and sit on his head. Watch our front window
after the narrow-gauge gets in, and when we've got the cash
inside we'll pull down the shade for a signal. Don't turn
him loose till then. I'm counting on you, Tom.