first one
and then the other of his boots; and not until he had succeeded in
flicking the last grain of dust from them did he take up the business
in hand.

"Gentlemen, what's wrong with the cyards?" he now began in his peculiar
drawling voice.

Sonora pointed to the faro table.

"The Sidney Duck's cheated!" he said--an accusation which was
responsible for a renewal of outcries and caused a number of men to
pounce upon the faro dealer.

Trinidad ran a significant hand around his collar.

"String 'im! Come on, you--!" once more he cried. But on seeing the
Sheriff raise a restraining hand he desisted from pulling the Australian
along.

"Wait a minute!" commanded the Sheriff.

The miners with the prisoner in their midst stood stock-still. Now
the Sheriff's features lost some of their usual inscrutability and
for a moment became hard and stern. Slowly he let his eyes wander
comprehensively about the saloon: first, they travelled to a small
balcony--reached by a ladder drawn down or up at will--decorated with
red calico curtains, garlands of cedar and bittersweet, while the
railing was ornamented with a wildcat's skin and a stuffed fawn's head;
from the ceiling with its strings of red peppers, onions and apples
they fell on a stuffed grizzly bear, which stood at the entrance to
the dance-hall, with a little green parasol in its paw and an old silk
hat upon its head; from it they shifted to the gaudy bar with its
paraphernalia of fancy glasses, show-cases of coloured liquors and its
pair of scales for weighing the gold dust; and from that to a keg,
the top of which could be withdrawn without engendering the slightest
suspicion that it represented other than an ordinary receptacle for
liquor. Two notices tacked upon the wall also caught and held his
glance, his eyes dwelling most affectionately on the one reading:
"A Real Home For The Boys."

That there was such a thing as sentiment in the make-up of the
Sheriff of Manzaneta County few people, perhaps, would have believed.
Nevertheless, at the thought that this placard inspired, he dismissed
whatever inclination he might have had to deal leniently with the
culprit, and calmly observed:

"There is no reason, gentlemen, of being in a hurry. I've got something
to say about this. I don't forget, although I am the Sheriff of
Manzaneta County, that I'm running four games. But it's men like The
Sidney Duck here that casts reflections on square-minded, sporting men
like