as immediately hoisted on to the top of Rob's coach.

"Give over, boys ..."

"Who is the whitest man in Medicine Bow?" sang Ned Blossom.

"Colorado Jim!" howled the chorus.

"Who is the huskiest two-hundred-pounder in the hul of Ameriky?"

"Colorado Jim!"

"Who is it the gals all lu-huv?"

"Colorado Jim--sure!"

Jim swung his big figure over the side of the coach. He grabbed two of his
tormentors by the scruffs of their necks and jerked them on to the
ground.

"I'm through with all this," he cried. "Rob, get that animated bunch of
horse-hair going."

Ned Blossom held up his hand.

"Cut it out, boys," he ordered. "See here, Jim, we got wise to this
absconsion of yours, and we thought we'd jest bunch in. The boys are
feeling queer about it, though there ain't much show of handkerchiefs.
We--we thought mebbe you'd accept a little--kinder keepsake. It--it ain't
much, but--but---- Wal, here it is."

He jerked something from his pocket and put it into Jim's hand. It was a
gold cigarette-case, with an inscription worked in small diamonds: "To
Colorado Jim from his chums." Jim stood gazing at this token of their
regard. He hated sentiment, and yet was as big a victim of it as anyone.
When he spoke his great voice wavered.

"I'm going a hell of a distance before I find boys like you. I wish I
wasn't going. I--wish----"

He grabbed Ned's hand quickly, and then that of each of the other men, and
jumped into the coach. They understood the emotion in the big heart of
him. Rob started the team and away went the coach in a cloud of dust. Hats
went up in the air and revolvers barked.

"Good-bye, Colorado Jim! Good-bye!"

Emily at the door, clasping the fifty-dollar note in her grimy paw, waited
until the coach was a mere dot in the distance. Then she rubbed a
sorrowful eye.

"Gee, but he was jest wonderful!" she moaned.

CHAPTER II

THE BRIGHT LIGHTS

New York brought Jim Conlan up with a start. Everything was amazing;
everything was bewildering. He felt like a lost soul, stunned with the
noise, dazed by the sights. In the fastnesses of his beloved West he had
never imagined that such a place existed on the face of the earth. He felt
stifled and ill at ease. His clothes were different to those worn in this
city. People gave him a quick passing glance, knowing him at once for a
Westerner. Feeling a trifle embarrassed under their glances, he reflected
upon the advisability of buying new and more appropr