right soon."

"All I got to say," grumbled Curly, "is, for a thing that ain't got no
teeth, and that's dead, both, he can bite a leetle the hardest of
anything I ever did see."

"Yet it is strange," remarked Dan Anderson, "that the innocent
bystander should sit up and take notice, after all. How are you
feeling, friend?"

This to Bill, who was now faintly fanning a wing and ruffling up his
yellow crest.

"I'm mighty tired," said Bill.

"I don't blame you," remarked Dan Anderson, cheerfully, turning to put
down Suzanne and Arabella safe within the door, "but as corporation
counsel I am bound to protect the interests of my clients. Run, you
kids!

"As to you, Curly," he continued, "you represent, in your ignorance,
ourselves and all Heart's Desire. We have intrusted to us a candy
palladium of liberty, which, being interpreted, means a man's chance to
be a grown man, with whiskers, in a free state of Heart's Desire. What
do we do then? Ask in a railroad corporation, and shut our eyes!"

"And a corporation," said Curly, meditatively, "can be a shore cheerful
performer."

CHAPTER IX

CIVILIZATION AT HEART'S DESIRE

_How the Men of Heart's Desire surrendered to the Softening Seductions
of Croquet and other Pastimes_

"Go on, Curly, it's your next shot. Hurry up," said McKinney, who was
nervous.

"Now you just hold on, Mac," replied the former. "This here croquet is
a new style of shootin', and with two dollars on the game I ain't goin'
to be hurried none."

"It ain't a half-decent outfit, either," complained Doc Tomlinson.
"Hay wire ain't any good for croquet arches; and as for these here
balls and mallets you bought sight-unseen by mail, they're a disgrace
to civilization."

"_Pronto_! _Pronto_! Hurry up!" called Dan Anderson from his perch
on the fence of Whiteman's corral, from which he was observing what was
probably the first game of croquet ever played between the Pecos and
Rio Grande rivers. There were certain features of the contest in
question which were perhaps not usual. Indeed, I do not recall ever to
have seen any other game of croquet in which two of the high
contracting parties wore "chaps" and spurs and the other two overalls
and blue shirts. But in spite of all admonition Curly stood perplexed,
with his hat pushed back on his forehead and his mallet held gingerly
between the fingers of one hand, while a cigarette graced those of the
other.

"The court rules," resumed