hat
the boys would like your leaving her. They're very high-toned, they
are!" he concluded ironically.

"Then," said Van Loo, with another desperate idea, "could you not let us
have saddle-horses instead of the buggy? We could travel faster, and in
the event of pursuit and anything happening to ME," he added loftily,
"SHE at least could escape her pursuer's vengeance."

This suited Steptoe equally well, as long as the guilty couple fled
TOGETHER, and in the presence of witnesses. But he was not deceived by
Van Loo's heroic suggestion of self-sacrifice. "Quite right," he said
sarcastically, "it shall be done, and I've no doubt ONE of you will
escape. I'll send the horses round to the back door and keep the buggy
in front. That will keep Jack there, TOO,--with the boys handy."

But Mr. Hamlin had quite as accurate an idea of Mr. Van Loo's methods
and of his OWN standing with Steptoe's gang of roughs as Mr. Steptoe
himself. More than that, he also had a hold on a smaller but more
devoted and loyal following than Steptoe's. The employees and hostlers
of the hotel worshiped him. A single word of inquiry revealed to him
the fact that the buggy was NOT going on, but that Mr. Van Loo and
Mrs. Barker WERE--on two horses, a temporary side-saddle having been
constructed out of a mule's pack-tree. At which Mr. Hamlin, with his
usual audacity, walked into the bar-room, and going to the bar leaned
carelessly against it. Then turning to the lowering faces around him, he
said, with a flash of his white teeth, "Well, boys, I'm calculating to
leave the Divide in a few minutes to follow some friends in the buggy,
and it seems to me only the square thing to stand the liquor for the
crowd, without prejudice to any feeling or roughness there may be
against me. Everybody who knows me knows that I'm generally there when
the band plays, and I'm pretty sure to turn up for THAT sort of thing.
So you'll just consider that I've had a good game on the Divide, and
I'm reckoning it's only fair to leave a little of it behind me here,
to 'sweeten the pot' until I call again. I only ask you, gentlemen, to
drink success to my friends in the buggy as early and as often as you
can." He flung two gold pieces on the counter and paused, smiling.

He was right in his conjecture. Even the men who would have willingly
"held him up" a moment after, at the bidding of Steptoe, saw no reason
for declining a free drink "without prejudice." And it was a part of
the