o, I don't know
him--never saw him as far as I know. But a lot of fools in Los Pompan
have bought his dope, and it made some of them sick. That's how I
happened to know what it was soon as I tasted it. I've seen samples in
the homes of folks who called me in to treat them for stomach pains.
Almost always it was because they had taken too much of this Tosh
elixer. I've sampled dozens of bottles of it. He puts it out under
all sorts of names--makes the labels himself, I guess. So I didn't
recognize his concoction here until I sampled it," and the medical man
waved his hands at the three bottles. "So that's that. Fah Moo won't
die."

"He'll wreck our nerves, though, if he keeps this yelling up!"
complained Bud. "Can't you give him something?"

"Yes, I can relieve him," chuckled the doctor. "Mustard and water;
eh?" he went on as he saw the mixture. "Good enough but you have to
swallow too much of it to be effective. I've got something that will
do the work."

He produced a couple of capsules, which after much urging, the Chinese
was induced to swallow when told they would save his life. Then he was
led outside and far away by Snake and Yellin' Kid. In a short time Fah
Moo was a very sick Celestial, but after that he grew rapidly better
and came creeping back to the kitchen, somewhat pale, wan and drawn,
but no longer yipping, yelling and yapping.

"Can do now," he said, meaning that he could proceed with his work,
which he did, when he had formally been engaged by Bud who was
virtually head of the new ranch.

"Well, I guess that's all there is to this case," remarked the doctor
as he repacked his black bag. "There was no danger. He would have
gotten over it in time, anyhow."

"So the Elixer is only sarsaparilla; is it?" asked Bud.

"That's about all. Just a sort of root beer mixture of herbs and barks
the old man concocts. Harmless enough. It hasn't even the virtues of
soda water, for that has carbonic acid gas in it and that's beneficial
at times. So he calls it Life's Elixer; does he?"

"He does," assented Bud.

"And he stung me for a dollar!" sighed Snake. "Wait till I get hold of
him! Did I hear you boys say you caught him in a cave?"

"We didn't catch him--he vamoosed as soon as he heard us," reported
Bud. "But we saw him boiling the stuff. Only we thought it was
poison, on account of the dead cows."

"That's so--you did mention dead cows!" exclaimed Billee. "So Death
Valley is l