! Oh my!... And he was so sure!... Say, Gibson, how do you come in
this galley?" As a lone prospector his speech had been fittingly coarse;
now, with every mile, he shook off the debasing influence of Mr. Long.
"Kettle-washing makes black hands. Aren't you afraid you'll get into
trouble?"

"Nobody knows I'm kettle-washing, except Pappy Sanders and you," said
Gibson. "I was careful not to let your friend see me at the fire."

"I'll do you a good turn sometime," said Jeff. He rode on in silence for
a while and presently was lost in his own thoughts, leaning over with
his hands folded on his horse's neck. In a low and thoughtful voice he
half repeated, half chanted to himself:

"Illilleo Legardi, in the garden there alone,
There came to me no murmur of the fountain's undertone
So mystically, magically mellow as your own!"

Another silence. Then Jeff roused himself, with a start.

"I'll tell you what, Gibson, you'd better cut loose from me. So far as I
can see, you are only a kid. You don't want to get mixed up in a murder
scrape. This would go pretty hard with you if they can prove it on you.
Of course, I'm awfully obliged to you and all that; but you'd better
quit me while the quitting's good."

"Oh, no; I'll see you through," said Gibson lightly. "Besides, I know
you had nothing to do with the murder."

"Oh, the hell you do!" said Jeff. "That's kind of you, I'm sure. See
here, who'd sold you your chips, anyway? How'd you get in this game?"

"I got in this game, as you put it, because I jolly well wanted to,"
replied Charley, with becoming spirit. "That ought to be reason enough
for anything in this country. Nothing against it in the rules--and I
don't use the rules, anyhow. If you must have it all spelled out for
you--I knew, or at least I'd heard, that your friends were away from
Rainbow; so I judged you wouldn't go up there. Then I knew those four
amateur Sherlocks--they're in my set in Arcadia. When two of the
deerhunters, after starting at two A.M., came back to Arcadia the same
morning they left, looking all wise and important, and slipped off on
the train to Escondido, saying nothing to any one--and when the other
two didn't come home at all--I began to think; went down to the depot,
found they had gone to Escondido, and I came on the next train. I found
out Pappy was your friend; and when he got your little hurry-up call I
volunteered my services, seeing Pappy was too old and not footloose