nd Forty-nine springs up, perfectly
erect, perfectly dignified. "Fly around, Carrie, fly around; fix
yourself up. The sheriff is coming--fly around!"

The girl drops the gun in the corner where she had found it, and stands
before Forty-nine, smoothing down her apron, and letting her eyes fall
on the floor timidly and in a childlike way, as if these little hands of
hers had never known a harder task than their present employment of
smoothing down her apron.

Dosson springs up before the sheriff. He rubs his eyes, and he looks
about as if he had just been startled from some bad, ugly dream. He
wonders, indeed, if he has seen John Logan at all. Again he rubs his
eyes, and then, looking at his knuckle, says, in a deep, guttural
fashion, to himself, "Jim-jams, by gol! I thought I'd seed John Logan!"

"Ah, Forty-nine," says the sheriff, "sorry to disturb you, and your
Miss; and good evening to you, sir; and good evening to you;" and the
honest sheriff bows to each, and brushes the snow from his fur cap as he
speaks.

Gar Dosson advances to his partner, Phin Emens, who has just entered,
with that stealthy old tiger-step so familiar to them both, and laying
his hand on his shoulder, they move aside.

"Then it's not the jim-jams," mutters he. "I've not got 'em, then."

He stops, pinches himself, looks at his hands, and mutters to himself.
Then he lifts his hand to his ear.

"Look at it again!" Phin Emens looks at the ear. "It's red, ain't it?
Oh, it feels red; it feels like fire. Then I've not got 'em, and he is
here. Hist! Come here! We want that thousand dollars all to ourselves."

He plucks his companion further to one side. They talk and gesticulate
together, while now and then a big red rough hand is thrust out savagely
toward the curtain.

"Sorry indeed to disturb you, Miss," observes the sheriff; "but you see,
I've been searching and swearing of 'em all, and its only fair to serve
all alike."

"He is not here. Upon the honor of a gentleman, he is not here," says
Forty-nine, emphatically.

"He is here!" howls Dosson; and the tremendous man, with the tremendous
voice and tremendous manner, bolts up before the sheriff. "He is here;
and I, as an honest man am going to earn a thousand dollars, for the
sake of justice. I have found him--found him all by myself; and these
fellers can't have no hand in my find." And he holds up John Logan's
cap, which had been knocked from his head in his hasty retreat to cover,
and