ide step. He was most unreasonable an' wouldn't let us bandage him nor
nothin', said he had a salve 'at beat anything a doctor had, an' we got
it for him out of his coat which was the one wrapped around Barbie. He
examined my shoulder with his right hand, an' his fingers worked around
inside my bones clear and true, but some way without hurtin' me much.
"It ain't broke," sez he, "just grooved a bit. You got bones like a
grizzly."

When his salve came he rubbed it on me an' then he rubbed it on
himself, an' then he told us to clear out so he could sleep. We all
left him after a little, an' I sent Spider Kelley after the doctor.
The' was only one member of Brophy's gang alive when I got back to the
side porch, an' he was sinkin' fast. He had told Jabez 'at then
intended to clean him out completely, an' that Jim, the sub-cook, was
one o' the gang an' had let the ridin' ponies loose so 'at the' was no
choice but to walk after the herd when they stampeded. He said that if
he hadn't 'a' had that chance he would 'a' put knock-out drops in the
coffee that night, which made all the men madder'n ever. Knock-out
drops ain't no fair way o' fightin'.

Well, this feller had been with Brophy a long time, an' he gave us a
purty complete list of his doin's an' his ways. As a rule a man only
lasted about a year with the gang, an' when it was possible Brophy
tried to get boys to fill up the vacancies,--boys likin' the game an'
not carin' much for the consequences. He tried to tell us where Brophy
had a lot o' gold salted down in Nevada, but it was hard to understand
him, an' before he made it clear he tuckered out.

We sent out word to the neighbors, an' that evening about forty of 'em
rode over to the buryin', and they made a good bit of a fuss over us,
'cause the gang had been worse'n a plague an' a famine. You can judge
o' their nerve when they made war on the Diamond Dot, we havin' one o'
the biggest outfits in the territory, an' all patriotic toward the old
man. Jabez give me more credit'n was due me, but he sure tried to do
the fair thing by of Monody too. Monody had saved us all, an' that was
the simple truth. It seemed odd to think of how that kick I had in the
jaw won me a friend in Monody, an' then, when it was passed on, saved
the Diamond Dot. I 'd like to know what it did for the French sailor
an' the feller what handed it to him. Funny thing, life.

We tried to get Monody to take his clothes off an' be comfortable; the
bo