"He went up to town this mornin' early," volunteered Dunc Withers.
"Reckon he was thirsty. Guess he'll be back on the evenin' train. That's
her comin' in now."

"Bars all closed in the city," chuckled the chief. "Won't get much
comfort there."

"You bet Bi knows some place to get it. He won't come home thirsty,
that's sure."

"I donno, they say the lid's down pretty tight."

"Aw, shucks!" sneered Dunc. "Bet I could get all I wanted."

Just then the door opened and Abijah Gage walked in, with a toothless
grin all around.

"Hello, Bi, get tanked up, did yeh?" greeted the chief.

"Well, naow, an' ef I did, what's that to you?" responded Bi, slapping
the chief's broad shoulder with a folded newspaper he carried. "You
don't 'spose I'm goin' to tell, an' get my frien's in trouble?"

"Le's see yer paper, Bi," said Dunc, snatching at it as Bi passed to his
regular seat.

Bi surrendered his paper with the air of one granting a high favor and
sank to his chair and his pipe.

"How's crops in the city?" asked Hank Fielder, and Bi's tale was set
a-going. Bi could talk; that was one thing that always made him welcome.

Dunc was deep in the paper. Presently he turned it over:

"Whew!" he said speculatively. "If that don't look like that little
lollypop over to Carson's I'll eat my hat! What's her name?"

They all drew around the paper and leaned over Dunc's shoulder squinting
at the picture, all but Bi, who was lighting his pipe:

"They're as like as two peas!" said one.

"It sure must be her sister!" declared another.

"Don't see no resemblance 'tall," declared the chief, flinging back to
his comfortable chair. "She's got short hair, an she's only a kid. This
one's growed up!"

"She might a cut her hair," suggested one.

Bi pricked up his ears, narrowed his cunning eyes, and slouched over to
the paper, looking at the picture keenly:

"Read it out, Dunc!" he commanded.

"Five thousand dollars reward for information concerning Elizabeth
Stanhope!"

There followed a description in detail of her size, height, coloring,
etc.

An inscrutable look overspread Bi's face and hid the cunning in his
eyes. He slouched to his seat during the reading and tilted back
comfortably smoking, but he narrowed his eyes to a slit and spoke little
during the remainder of the evening. They discussed the picture and the
possibility of the girl in the paper being a relative of the girl at
Carson's, but as Bi did not come forward wit