his uncle, in
New York, sent under cover of an envelope from the Chicago firm, and
written in reply to a letter from himself mailed immediately upon his
arrival at the mines; and Mr. Blaisdell and Morgan having left,
Houston retired to his room to make his first report of the
information he had secured and seemed likely to secure, concerning the
ways and means of the western mining company; leaving the chess
players deep in their game, and Lyle watching them.

Lyle, though keeping up her studies afternoons, had not been down to
Jack's cabin since the evening he had shown her the picture, partly on
account of the storm, and partly because she feared her father might
be watching her.

Jack had wondered at her absence, thinking perhaps her new friends had
something to do with it; but on this night, Jack had other company, as
Bull-dog had ensconced himself in Mike's chair beside the stove, and
having also appropriated Mike's briar pipe,--its owner being
absent,--was smoking with all the gravity and self-possession of an
old-timer, and entertaining Jack with his quaint talk.

"Say," he said at last, clasping his hands about his knee, and holding
the pipe between his teeth, "have ye seen that new feller up at the
orfice. Mister Houston, they call him?"

Jack replied, very indifferently, that he had seen him once or twice.

"Well, now, he's a Joe-dandy, a regular cracker-jack; an' he's goin'
ter be boss of that whole shootin' match, Morgan an' that little,
black, snaky feller, an' old Blaisdell, too, if he don't look out fer
hisself."

"What makes you think so?" asked Jack, much amused.

"I don't think so, I know it. He's got more sand than all the rest of
'em put together, an' he ain't afraid of nobody. 'D ye hear 'bout that
fight that him 'n Morgan had?"

"No, did they fight?" inquired Jack, much surprised.

"Did they fight!" exclaimed the little Arab, removing the pipe from
his mouth, and shaking his head with evident satisfaction at the
remembrance of the scene, "well, I should smile! Morgan, he tried hard
enough ter fight, but the other feller did him up in 'bout the
sixteenth part of a second!"

"Were you there?" asked Jack, laughing.

"I was peekin' through a crack in the door; they s'posed I'd gone, but
I see somethin' was up when Mister Houston first come in, an' I just
makes up my mind I'll see the fun through, an' when I goes out, I
bangs the door hard, and then opens it agin, careful like, and peeks