asked. Returning now as though from
temporary absence, he punched an ancient and subdued burro into town,
and unrolled his blankets behind Whiteman's corral, treating his
return, as did every one else, entirely as a matter of course. Seeing
these things, a renewed cheerfulness came to the lately despondent.
Whiteman the Jew, ever a Greatheart, openly exulted, and voiced again
his perennial confession of commercial faith in Heart's Desire.

"Keep your eye on Viteman," said he. "Der railroat may go, der barber
may go, der saloon may go, but not Viteman. My chudgment is like it
vas eight years ago. Dis stock of goots is right vere I put it. If no
one don't buy it, I keeps it. I know my pizness. Should I put in
twenty thousand dollars' vort of goots, and make a mistake of der blace
vere a town should be? I guess not! Viteman stays. By and by der
railroat comes to Viteman. You vatch. Keep your eye on Viteman."

He stood in the door of his long log store building, squat, stocky,
bristling, blue shirted like the rest, and cast his eye down counters
and shelves piled with clothing and hats, boots and gloves, pick-axes,
long-handled shovels, saddles, spurs, wagon bows, flour, bacon, and all
manner of things which come in tin cans. Dust was over all; but above
the dust was expectancy and not despair. The Goddess of Progress had
her choicest temple in the frontier store.

"I toll you poys years ago," Whiteman went on, "you should blat der
town. Ve blat it oursellufs now. Ve don't act like childrens no more.
Ve meet again. Ve holt a election. Ve make Viteman gounty dreasurer.
Dan Anderson should be mayor, and McGinney glerk. Ve make a town
gouncil, and ve go to vork like ve should ought to did. Ve move
Nogales City over here and make dis der gounty seat. Ve bedition for a
new gounty--ve don't vant to belong to dot Becos River gow outfit. Ve
make a town for oursellufs. Viteman didn't put in dis stock of goots
for noddings. You vatch Viteman."

This speech turned the tide, coming as it did with the arrival of
McGinnis. Billy Hudgens decided to wait for a few more days, although
for the time he was out of business for lack of liquids. It was
fortunate that McGinnis did not know this latter fact.

The capital of McGinnis, aside from his freckles and his thirst, was
somewhat limited. His blankets were thin and ragged, his pistol minus
the most important portion of a revolver--to wit, the cylinder--and
w