h. Some of them had
brought stools or boxes, and were comfortably reading scraps of paper.

I walked down the line. A dozen from the front I saw Johnny standing.
This surprised me, for I knew he could not expect mail by this steamer.
Before I had reached him he had finished talking to a stranger, and had
yielded his place.

"Hullo!" he greeted me. "How you getting on?"

"So-so!" I replied. "I'm looking for a man who owes me twenty-five
dollars."

"Well, he's here," said Johnny confidently. "Everybody in town is here."

We found McGlynn in line about a block down the street. When he saw me
coming he pulled a fat buckskin bag from his breeches pocket, opened its
mouth, and shook a quantity of its contents, by guess, into the palm of
his hand.

"There you are," said he; "that's near enough. I'm a pretty good
guesser. I hope you took care of the mules all right; you ought to,
you're from a farm."

"I fixed 'em."

"And the mud? How many times did you get stuck?"

"Not at all."

He looked at me with surprise.

"Would you think of that, now!" said he. "You must have loaded her
light."

"I did."

"Did you get all the goods over?"

"Yes."

"Well, I'll acknowledge you're a judgematical young man; and if you want
a job with me I'll let that lawyer go I spoke to the judge about. He
handed it to me then, didn't he?" He laughed heartily. "No? Well, you're
right. A man's a fool to work for any one but himself. Where's your bag?
Haven't any? How do you carry your dust? Haven't any? I forgot; you're a
tenderfoot, of course." He opened his buckskin sack with his teeth, and
poured back the gold from the palm of his hand. Then he searched for a
moment in all his pockets, and produced a most peculiar chunk of gold
metal. It was nearly as thick as it was wide, shaped roughly into an
octagon, and stamped with initials. This he handed to me.

"It's about a fifty-dollar slug," said he, "you can get it weighed. Give
me the change next time you see me."

"But I may leave for the mines to-morrow," I objected.

"Then leave the change with Jim Recket of the El Dorado."

"How do you know I'll leave it?" I asked curiously.

"I don't," replied McGlynn bluntly. "But if you need twenty-five dollars
worse than you do a decent conscience, then John A. McGlynn isn't the
man to deny you!"

Johnny and I left for the hotel.

"I didn't know you expected any mail," said I.

"I don't."

"But thought I saw you in line----"

"Oh,