ust-filled
box near which the other was standing.

Without rising from his seat in the one undamaged chair, he answered:
"If it's the storekeeper you mean, I'm him." Then, as an after-thought.
"Was they somethin' you wanted?"

Bill resented the implied rebuke in the storekeeper's words even more
than he resented the bombardment of tobacco juice which barely missed
his boots. Take it all in all he was having a rather rough time of it.

The railway people had refused to stop their fast train at Hilarity for
his special benefit, and he had been compelled to get off at the
nearest division point, some forty miles to the westward, and continue
his journey in the evil-smelling caboose of the local freight-train
which crawled jerkily over the rails, and stopped to shunt cars at
every siding.

Nearly the whole day had been consumed for the trip, during which time
he had sat in the stuffy, superheated car, whose foul air reeked of
cheap tobacco and drying garments, and listened to the guffaws of the
train-crew as they regaled each other with vile stories and long
accounts of revolting personal experiences among the dives of cities.

So now, tired, grimy, and with his head aching dully from the long
breathing of foul air, he was in no humor for comprehensive amiability.

He made his few purchases and replied curtly to the questions of the
storekeeper. It is doubtful if he would have replied at all but for the
fact that he must have information in regard to the whereabouts of
Moncrossen's Blood River camp.

There was a roar of merriment, which he answered with a scowl, when he
inquired the location of the hotel.

"Jest help yourself, stranger," said Burrage, with a generous sweep of
the arm which included all Hilarity not within the confines of the
room. "They's about fifty buildin's, cabins, an' shacks along the
street, an' you can take your pick. Rent's the cheapest thing they is
in Hilarity--jest kick out the rats an' spread your blankets."

It was when Bill stooped to add the gaudy-labeled cans to his pack that
Daddy Dunnigan, of the twisted leg, volunteered the bit of advice that
fell upon his ears unheeded.

He was openly resentful now, having detected certain smiles, winks, and
nudgings with which the assembled men called each other's attention to
various details of his clothing and pack.

During the storekeeper's temporary cessation of vigilance while waiting
upon his customer, the others had seized the opport