ussell."

The search was not an easy one. Russell had been seen freely in the
makeshift saloons and other places on both sides of the street. It
seemed, from what they could glean and put together, that he had stopped
drinking when he had arrived at a certain point in his boasting and had
announced his intention of sobering up before he "took the bloody,
hog-bellied cow-puncher apart, providin' the latter showed." This suited
Mormon, who wanted fairly to whip a live opponent, not fight a
staggering drunkard. But they could not find him. They had several
volunteer assistants who proved useless. Sam began to yawn.

"I ain't sleepy, I'm hungry," he said. "Let's go get us a steak oveh to
Simpson's. If he's gone to bed we'll rout him out. Won't be the first
time he turned out to cook me a meal. A shot of that Rocky Mountain
grapejuice w'udn't go so bad. Mormon, a feed 'ud round you out. Roarin'
Russell has crawled in somewheres an' died of heart failure. Come on,
hombres."

Simpson was awake and dressed and on the job. His place was almost as
well filled as it had been the first time they entered it. In the first
seethe of the gold excitement no one seemed to get sleepy, while
appetites developed. Word had preceded them that Mormon Peters was
looking for Roaring Russell and their entrance caused more than a ripple
of interest. Simpson came bustling forward to serve them.

"Good thick rare steak's what you want, ain't it? Fine fightin' food.
Me, I'm takin' in a few bets on you, Mormon. 'Member the time you got a
hammerlock on that long-horned gent from Texas with the Lazy Z outfit?
I cleaned up on you that time an' this'll be a repeater. This same
Roarin' Russell has been tellin' the camp what a rip-snortin',
limb-loosenin', strong-armed galoot he is, an' some of 'em have
swallered it. They ain't seen you in action, Mormon, an' I have. You'll
jest natcherly chaw him inter hash. I'm bettin' there won't be enough of
him left to stuff a Chili pepper after you git through."

"I ain't as limber as I was, Alf," said Mormon deprecatingly. "Make my
steak thick, will you? Have you seen anything of the Roarin' gent?"

"Not personal. He don't eat here. There was a friend of yores in a while
ago who seemed to be sort of keepin' tabs on him. That young assayer
Russell started to bulldoze when Sandy took a hand. Said he'd be in
ag'in later. 'Peared to think you was bound to show before mornin'."

Simpson went to the back of his shac