, held it out at arm's length and apostrophized
it in terms which Mr. McNab would have regarded as a personal insult,
and which the community on the Blue might possibly have resented with a
challenge to mortal combat. His next step, had they witnessed it, would
certainly have led to the conclusion that he was a dangerous lunatic,
and one, at that, whose peculiar madness was of a kind specially
objectionable to the residents of Blue Bar. He placed the object toward
which his feelings had undergone so sudden a revulsion carefully on the
ground, and seizing in his hands a huge boulder, he proceeded to let it
drop accurately upon it. He oscillated critically over the fragments, as
if to assure himself that the result had been satisfactorily attained,
and then strode rapidly and unsteadily into the forest. How such unsound
principles of economy came to be adopted by him never very clearly
appeared; and the problem of his absence from camp for two whole days,
and his subsequent reform upon the subject of whisky, were matters very
freely discussed at McNab's hut, without any definite or reliable result
being arrived at.

* * * * *

Summer had melted imperceptibly into autumn; and the bright tints that
glittered on the mountain-slopes and through the sturdy undergrowth of
the forest told that it in its turn was soon to give way to winter.
Chihuahua Bar was piled with great heaps of boulders and gravel,
furrowed here and there with deep ditches and trenches, and otherwise
gave ample evidence of the hard work that had been done. But, as Old
Platte, remarked, "The luck was down on them," and the partners had very
little to show for their long months of toil. Gentleman Dick had worked
as hard and earnestly as the others, and had never been known to utter a
word of complaint through the many hardships and mishaps they endured.
But a great change had come over him. No one who saw him when he joined
the party in Denver would have ventured to call him strong or robust,
but, delicate as he was then, he was now a mere shadow by comparison.
The change had been more marked and rapid during the last few weeks. He
had seemed to fade gradually away, growing daily weaker and weaker,
until at last a knowledge of his increasing debility forced itself upon
the not very observant faculties of his companions--coming rather as a
sense of indefinable uneasiness on his behalf than any actual
apprehension of his real con