"You'd better run away before you try to run it!" chuckled the old man
with what seemed to be sinister humor. "But you can't say I didn't
warn you."

"Warn us of what?" asked Nort, a bit sharply. "What do you mean by
coming here trying to scare me?"

"I'm not trying to scare you, my boy, I'm just trying to warn you.
Those here before you wouldn't listen to me, and what happened to them?
They died, that's what happened. Now I'm offering you a chance for
your life and it seems to rile you."

"Oh, no, I'm not mad," and Nort smiled a little. "But I would like to
know what you are driving at. Before we came here we heard stories
about the danger of Dot and Dash, but no one knew just what the danger
was. Now you seem to----"

"Oh, no, I don't, young man!" interrupted the stranger, running his
skinny hands through his straggly, white hair. "I don't know what
caused all those deaths any more than you do. But I do know if those
who are gone--I mean the humans now and not the cattle--I mean if they
had taken my Elixer they'd be alive to-day. There she is--Elixer of
Life!" and from what seemed to be one of many pockets in his loose coat
he pulled out a bottle of dark liquid. Before Nort had a chance to
make reply the stranger, holding up the bottle and affectionately
patting it from time to time, went on with:

"There she is! Elixer of Life! Made from roots, berries and herbs I
gathered myself. Compounded in a secret manner after a recipe given me
by an old Indian. It soothes the nerves, strengthens the muscles,
clears the brain and prolongs life. Only a dollar a bottle and I can
let you have as many as you like. Guaranteed to act as specified and
harmless enough so you can give it to babies! There you are--the
Elixer of Life!" It was so labeled--spelled with an e instead of i,
and as the old man insisted this was right the boys let it go at that.
So the stuff remained "elixer" to the end of the chapter.

He produced another bottle from somewhere in the recesses of his long
coat and, holding the two phials aloft, advanced upon Nort with a
strange light shining in his eyes.

From a distance it must have looked to an observer as if the old man
was approaching the boy to hurl the bottles at him with evil intent,
for they were high in the air, and over Nort's head. And Snake Purdee
must have taken this view of it, for, a moment later, standing in the
door of the bunkhouse, the cowboy drew his gun, aimed it a