e got well. I don't know an' I keers less. Anyhow, we's
done got a few sides o' bacon an' a big bag o' meal an' a bushel o'
salt. Ef you choose to take one o' them sides o' bacon, an' a little
meal an' salt, an' give me one o' your pistols, I'm quite agreeable. The
gun mout come in handy when I git a little still a-goin', down there in
the holler."

"I'll do better than that," answered Duncan. "I'll give you a pair of
the pistols, as I said."

"Hold on! Go a leetle slow, Mister, an' don't forgit nothin'. You
preposed to gimme the p'ar o' pistols fer the bacon an' meal an' salt,
_an'_ fer yer dinner an' hoss feed. I've done tole you as how Si Watkins
don't never take no pay fer a dinner an' a hoss feed. So you can't offer
me the p'ar o' pistols 'thout offerin' to pay fer yer entertainment of
man an' beast, an' I won't have that, I tell you."

"Very well," answered Duncan; "I didn't mean that. I'll give you one of
the pistols in payment for the supply of provisions. That will end the
business part of the matter. Now, I'm going to do something else with
the other pistol--the mate of that one."

With that he opened his pocket knife and scratched on the silver
mounting of the pistol's butt the legend: "To Si Watkins, in memory of a
visit; from Guilford Duncan, Cairo, Illinois."

Then handing the inscribed weapon to his host he said:

"I have a right to make you a little present, purely in the way of
friendship, and not as 'pay' for anything at all. I want to give you
this pistol, and I want you to keep it. I don't know where I am going to
live and work in the West, and I don't know why I wrote 'Cairo,
Illinois' as my address. It simply came to me to do it. Perhaps it's a
good omen. Anyhow, I shall go to Cairo, and if I leave there I'll
arrange to have my letters forwarded to me, wherever I may be. So if
you're in trouble at any time you can write to me at Cairo. I am as poor
as you are now--yes, poorer. But I don't mean to stay poor. If you're in
trouble at any time, I'll do my best to see you through, just as you
have seen me through this time."

III

THE NEW BIRTH OF MANHOOD

Half an hour later the young man resumed his journey westward, passing
down the farther slopes of the mountain.

"Wonder why I wrote 'Cairo' as my address," he thought, as his trusty
horse carefully picked his way among the rocks and down the steeps. "I
hadn't thought of Cairo before as even a possible destination. I know
nobody t